Fire in Your Eyes
by Psychick23
Summary: AU. Seventeen-year-old Hatake Kakashi sat down with the bundle cradled against his stomach, almost as still as the thing in his arms. But it wasn't going to stay that way and he was clueless as to what he should be doing.
1. Assignment

**Rating**: PG-13 for some pretty strong language

**Pairings**: None

**Spoilers**: Um…some background info on Naruto but nothing that really gets into the anime or manga.

**ETA 3/29/008**

**A/N**: Yes, I know this is not an original story. I'm not even sure you can say I've put an original twist on it, although I would like to think that I have. I made it a bit AUish, but only on a few details. Mainly, however, this was for my enjoyment. A few things before you start:

**Disclaimer 1**: In no way, shape, or form do I condone seventeen year olds taking care of their own children. In fact, I would completely discourage it. Seventeen-year-olds in general these days do not have the mental maturity to take care of a human being. That being said, I know it happens and all my support goes out to those people who are successful. I could barely stand babysitting my seven-year-old brother, let alone an infant.

**Disclaimer 2**: Okay, the idea for orphan dorms? Has probably been done by many people. However, I specifically took it from Book of Changes' _A Different Perspective_. The orphan dorms aren't elaborated on in that story so I figure it's not too big a deal, but I believe in giving credit where credit is due. Check it out; it's in my favorites.

**Disclaimer 3**: This is the really important one…. I have a Kakashi Matrix T-shirt. Does that count? No? Damn. Then I don't own it.

**Summary**: Seventeen-year-old Hatake Kakashi sat down with the bundle cradled against his stomach, almost as still as the thing in his arms. But it wasn't going to stay that way and he was clueless as to what he should be doing.

* * *

Fire in Your Eyes

By Psychick

_So sacrifice yourself and let me have what's left._

_I know that I can find the fire in your eyes._

_I'm going all the way._

_Get away, please._

_You take the breath right out of me._

_You left a hole where my heart should be._

_You got to fight just to make it through,_

'_Cause I will be the death of you._

- _Breath_ by Breaking Benjamin

* * *

Chapter 1: Assignment

_Oh crap. It's_ moving.

Seventeen-year-old Hatake Kakashi stared down at the bundle in his arms without the slightest inkling of what to do. It hadn't moved since it had been shoved into his chest by an ANBU four hours ago. It was even quiet as he had conducted his rather one-sided argument with said ANBU, which had ended in Kakashi being forced to (reluctantly) bring it inside what was left of his house. He had then sat with it cradled against his stomach, while it continued to remain motionless. But now it was _moving_ and he was clueless as to what he should be doing.

In fact, the hell with that. Why should _he_ be doing anything with it? Why had Sandaime-sama picked _him_ to deal with this mess. Yes, there were obvious reasons. One was that he was seventeen, old enough to watch out for another living being. Another reason was that the thing he held now was related to _him_. But right now Kakashi wasn't particularly happy with _him_.

He had understood why it had to be done of course. _Gods_, he understood. He was a ninja of Konoha, a jounin; he had killed his first man before he could speak properly. He had killed to protect and killed to survive and killed and killed_ and killed and killed _until there was nothing left, _nothing_, but that was the problem because he had absolutely no _damn_ clue how to make something _live_. Even the people he cared about desperately, the ones he would give his soul and drench his hands in blood for he couldn't make live. The people he would _drink_ the blood of his opponents for, the people he would sacrifice everything for just so they could _stay alive_ he couldn't protect. So how the _hell_ was he supposed to raise _this_?

"What am I supposed to _do_ with you?" Kakashi voiced to the bundle.

It did not respond, didn't even cry or…or whatever these things were supposed to do, but it did start shifting again. Its small head twisted back and forth as if it were having its own nightmare.

"You and me both," the silver-haired man sighed.

Twenty-four hours. It was only a mere twenty-four hours ago everything had gone horribly right. The elite forces of Konoha were losing against the massive chakra and size of the demon fox that had appeared out of nowhere. The _regular_ forces of ninja, genin and chuunin that had no place in this battle but also had no choice, were dropping like flies. Kakashi had thrown everything he had and more into the battle to protect the village that was more important to him than anything, to protect the _people_ that were more important than anything, but it hadn't been enough. The damn thing was just too much for all of them.

Except for one.

Kakashi hadn't even known what was going on until it was too late. None of them had. The fool had stood there, staring down at his enemy and the jounin had been utterly terrified that he wouldn't reach them in time to save the Hokage. The seals they all watched their village leader perform produced nothing, not even an upsurge in chakra flow it seemed, and many of the rookies lost it, yelling that even Yondaime-sama couldn't save them, that they were all lost. Kakashi had no time for such scum and raced toward his former sensei to protect him.

But it was pointless. Even though the fox had stilled, stopped fighting back, nothing they did could harm it significantly. Not one of them could land a blow that made any difference, and all the while the Hokage simply stood there, staring at the demon, blue eyes blazing with ice. His breathing steadily became harsh and ragged, though he seemed to be doing nothing. The fox suddenly raged, the anger in his roar vibrating through every man and woman's chest down to their core. Then for no apparent reason it vanished, disappeared in a red blaze of heatless flame before it's form could hit the ground.

Everyone stared in shock at the place where the demon had been, but Kakashi had the presence of mind to look towards their leader, knowing instinctively that it was _not_ that easy and that someone would pay. Sure enough, as he locked eyes with the Hokage, the blond man smiled. It was a smile full of hope and joy, of happiness and accomplishment, of unadulterated relief on the surface, but Kakashi had spent too much time around him to miss the underlying look of bitter defeat, of utter despair, of things left undone, unsaid and unseen.

The copy ninja would have swallowed his own kunai to miss that look. _Late again,_ a voice mocked. _Can you ever be on time? Less-than-scum._

He still didn't know what had happened. Only that Rin had pronounced Sensei DOA and Sandaime-sama, who had now taken up his old position on the council's insistence, had pronounced the village safe.

However, 'safe' in no way meant 'intact.' The Kyuubi hadn't actually made it all the way inside the village fortunately, but it had still dealt a lot of damage. The south portion of the wall was completely destroyed where the Kyuubi had charged it and the homes and buildings on that edge were demolished from its nine tails and paws. Even the buildings in the center of the village, where Kakashi lived, had started to come down from the shockwaves created by the demon fox's rampaging. The north end of the village, being farthest away from the battle scene, was the least damaged, so those who had lost their homes were invited to stay until they could build something that they could live in.

The biggest problem lay in the fact that homes were not the only buildings affected. The orphanage and its adjoining dorms resided in the south part of the village and would take quite awhile to rebuild. The older kids, about ten- to fifteen-years-old, would be okay. Most had followed in their parent's footsteps and become ninja, and their subsequent training had instilled a modicum of maturity in them that would make it no problem for them to board in the north district. The five- to nine-year-olds were a little tougher to accommodate, but the north district was the richer part of the village, and those who were parents of kids around the same age agreed to take them in, in exchange for some compensation.

It was the infant to four-year-olds that were more difficult. There weren't many of them. A lot of ninja women who had recently given birth simply held off their careers for a few years and a few retired from the shinobi way for good. Every so often, however, a kunoichi was summoned to duty and never returned alive.

The people of Konoha weren't heartless citizens but the fact was that it took far too much energy to raise even a toddler while the village needed rebuilding. An infant was even more work, as they needed constant attention in the form of playtime, regular diaper changes and formula feedings, and frequently woke up in the middle of the night.

Kakashi, of course, wasn't even vaguely aware of most of this. He had deduced so far that this thing in his arms needed to eat at some point, that it probably wasn't potty trained and that it felt as if it would break if he didn't support its entire body. Beyond that he was clueless.

"Shit," he said to the still-sleeping bundle, "you realize I don't even know how to hold you properly? So really, if this doesn't go the way you thought it would, don't blame me. You have Sandaime-sama to thank for that." The copy-ninja suddenly scowled, "Better yet, blame your father. I don't suppose you have any idea what was going through his head?"

The only reply he got was a scrunched face and a heel that had worked its way out of the blankets jammed into the top of his thigh. It kind of hurt but his numerous injuries from mission work had been far more painful and it couldn't really compare to the broken ribs he was sporting right now.

Even so, the strength of its kick surprised him. It had nothing to do with its size. Kakashi had met several ninja who had drawn the genetic short straw, no pun intended, and also had considerable strength, but he had always held by the standard that the less you trained your body, the weaker you were. This was true of every person he knew and so it followed that an infant, especially a newborn one, would be… well, a limp rag doll came to mind. Especially, since he had realized that moving his arm from under its head deprived it of all support. So how could something that couldn't keep its head up for even one second deliver a kick that would register as painful?

The silver-haired ninja decided to try something. If its legs were that strong already, what about its arms or hands? Gently—everything about this new being seemed to require a gentleness Kakashi didn't know he had—gently he pushed aside some of the blankets to gain access to its arm. He obviously couldn't ask it to aim a punch at him. Even if it wasn't asleep the copy ninja wasn't stupid enough to think it would understand him. Instead, he slipped one finger—and it barely fit—into its slightly fisted hand.

The reaction was immediate. Actually, it was more than immediate. Kakashi barely had time to slide his finger in before its fist closed tightly around the finger and refused to let go.

"…Woah…" he whispered.

It was a strong grip, too. Not strong enough that he couldn't easily pry his finger out if he wanted to, but the fact that he had to make an effort at all was incredible to Kakashi. The sight of that tiny, innocent fist gripping so trustingly to one of the deadliest, bloodiest fingers Kakashi knew made him a little breathless, too. It was one of the most amazing things he had ever seen.

There was a knock on the door, or what was left of it, and the jounin's breathlessness left him in the form of a frustrated growl. He hadn't been lying when he said that he didn't know how to hold it properly. How on earth was he supposed to get up?

He settled for just yelling at the person to come in, but as soon as he realized who his visitor was he wished he had gotten up so that he could have slammed the door back in the old geezer's face. It would have been disrespectful, sure, but it would have felt damn good.

He compromised by letting the disrespect ooze into his voice.

"Hello Hokage-sama. I'd stand but I seem to have my hands full. Please, sit. Anywhere. I'm not entirely sure where all my chairs are right now."

The Sandaime sighed. It was a better response than he had been expecting frankly, and he was reasonably sure that he had the child in his soldier's arms to thank for that. Yondaime had been very close to all his students and, while he wasn't expected to share everything with them, the formerly retired Hokage had known that Rin and Kakashi would not be happy with being kept out of the loop when he had insisted upon it. They would be even more furious when they learned of what had actually occurred.

The old man motioned for those who had followed him to bring in what they carried while he spoke to the young jounin.

"Kakashi. I'm sorry we are meeting again under these unfortunate circumstances. I'm afraid I haven't much time to spare but I have some information that must be discussed with you and it cannot wait."

Kakashi was only paying the Sandaime half his attention as the other half watched the men entering his house with boxes of…stuff. That one box looked like it might contain diapers in it but some of the other things he had never seen in his life. Wait…those might be clothes, but they looked awfully small. He knew that it was tiny, but could it really fit into those? They looked like they might fit on a doll, but not the bundle currently in his arms.

"You're really serious about this aren't you?" the copy-ninja asked. "You really want me to take care of this? You think I can actually handle it? 'Cause I'm telling you right now, I have no idea what I'm doing."

"It will be difficult," Hiruzen conceded, aware that he was probably understating the problem to the nth degree, "but I do think you will be capable." In actuality, it had very little to do with how capable Kakashi was. If Sarutobi had been able to choose from anyone he wanted to take care of the child, Kakashi would have been his absolute last choice. As it was, his choices were severely limited, and the silver-haired ninja had suddenly jumped to the head of his list.

"I'm not kidding, Hokage-sama. I literally have _no idea_ what I'm doing. I'm a _ninja,_ Sandaime-sama. One of your shinobi, and all I know is how to _kill_. How am I supposed to do this? What am I supposed to do with _that?_" Kakashi attempted to point at the boxes that were still being brought in, but his left arm was currently occupied supporting the infant's head and his right hand was caught in the young boy's fist. The jounin ended up pointing more with his elbow than anything else. Sarutobi prayed to any god listening that it meant Kakashi was already interacting with the child. It would make it that much easier to convince him to take this assignment.

"These are supplies you will need to take care of the boy. Every family that has agreed to take an orphan in is receiving some form of compensation, and those with infants are being given supplies for the first few weeks."

The young jounin gave a bitter laugh, "Family? So I'm a family now, am I? Years spent living on my own and suddenly I qualify as a fucking _family_-"

"You are the closest thing this boy has!" Hiruzen hissed, mindful of the fact that the infant was still sleeping. "_Believe_ me, I wish I could hand him over to Rin. She's a much better choice than you, but she's also a medic-nin and we need as many as possible to help with the injured in the hospital. She has no time to take care of an infant."

"What happened to Sensei's girlfriend then? The ANBU said she didn't die in childbirth but he wouldn't tell me where she was. Isn't this _her_ responsibility?"

The Hokage looked away from the copy-ninja so as not to make it seem that the disappointment he was feeling was directed at him. "The boy's mother has…disappeared. She recovered very quickly after childbirth and ran away. I have had ANBU looking for her everywhere, but we haven't been successful so far." He shook his head, "At this point, even if she does return to Konoha, she will not be allowed to take her child back. It is too dangerous for him."

Kakashi looked up at the old man in surprise. As far as he knew it wasn't like the Hokage to be so…condemning. But then again, he had only met sensei's girlfriend once, couldn't even recall her name, as the meeting had been brief and interruptive. Maybe she hadn't been as trustworthy as Yondaime-sama had thought. Especially if she was willing to abandon her own newborn.

Still, the jounin wasn't finished arguing his point yet. He was planning to pull out all the stops, or at least gain as much information as he could before the Hokage clammed up on him.

"How am I supposed to take on missions?"

_And now the fight begins_, thought Sarutobi. "You won't be."

"_WHAT?_ _How_? Forget all this stuff I'm going to need! How am I supposed to pay for _myself_?" The bundle was starting to stir again. Kakashi absently tried to pull the blanket back over it with his finger still trapped in its fist and his eyes focused on Sandaime-sama. It hadn't occurred to him to remove his finger. It was the only thing reminding him that there was something fragile in his arms that he couldn't afford to break. Lucky Sandaime-sama.

"You won't be," the Hokage reiterated, "because you have already been given an assignment. Taking care of the boy is not simply a task that has been forced on you at an inopportune time. He has become your sole assignment for an indeterminate length of time." He took a deep breath and looked around the room. Those who had agreed to help bring supplies around had finished here and moved on to their next task. It left him free to discuss certain events.

"Kakashi. The death of the Yondaime, the disappearance of the boy's mother, giving the child to _you_ of all people. These are not coincidences. There is a reason behind it." Sandaime almost, _almost_, continued but for some reason the words _all I know is how to kill_ echoed in his head and for the first time he really began to worry about his choice. Yet there was no going back now. The council was giving him only this one chance. If Kakashi did not accept, the infant in his arms was going to die tonight.

_Please, please. If there is anyone listening to this prayer, please let this work._

Out loud the Hokage asked, "May I hold him? I haven't had the chance yet and it would be a pleasure I haven't had in a while."

Kakashi looked startled at the abrupt change in topic, but he also looked slightly relieved to be relieved of his charge. "Sure, if you can manage it. I don't exactly know how to hand it over."

The father in Sarutobi winced at having a child called 'it' and hoped it wasn't a sign of things to come.

Picking up the boy was awkward. His old bones weren't as flexible as they had always been, even considering that he was a shinobi. They creaked and protested as he bent over, and gathering the infant in his arms wasn't made any easier by the fact that he hung on to Kakashi's finger like it was his last link to life. The Hokage shuddered at the image, praying that the jounin's prying to free himself wasn't as symbolic as it seemed. At least Kakashi had managed to work out that the head needed support, as he kept his left hand underneath until Sarutobi could do it himself. So there was hope after all.

Hiruzen cradled the infant, rocking him gently back and forth as he walked to the other side of the room, basking in the feeling of life in his arms. As a ninja he had dealt far too much death and seen too much of it as well. It no longer bothered him as it once had, but as he had grown closer to it himself he often wondered if that was not a tragedy, too. He sometimes envied the midwives who had the chance to bring a child into the world, something not so easily done as a kunai across the neck or a well-performed jutsu.

"_I'd do anything to save this village. Protecting the people here is the most important thing I'll ever do. Especially now. But you know what I_ will_ regret? That I'll never know. Is it a boy or a girl?" A heartbreaking laugh. "Kind of makes me wish we had decided to find out, now." A pause. "We didn't even pick a name, you know? Wanted to wait until it was born. She hated the idea of a gender-neutral name. Now she won't even have to fight me about it."_

The memory brought tears to the old man's eyes. Neither of them would name the boy now. As clueless as he was, even Kakashi couldn't call the infant 'it' forever. And since he was to become the primary caregiver, Sarutobi had decided it would be his right. _If_ he chose to take the boy.

"Hokage-sama? What's going on? What did you mean 'not a coincidence'?"

Sandaime blinked the tears away and began. "Yondaime had discovered another forbidden jutsu several months ago. It is called Shiki Fuujin and allows the user to seal his opponent's soul away. Unfortunately, the user's soul is also destroyed." That wasn't entirely true, but for the purpose of quick explanation, it would have the same effect. "When the demon fox appeared, it quickly became apparent to Yondaime that there would be no stopping it. The Kyuubi was simply too powerful. So he devised a plan."

"Sealing the Kyuubi inside a dead body would not work, an unfortunate side effect of its power. Sealing it inside another adult would not work either; its chakra would overpower the adult and burn him or her from the inside out. A child _might_ live longer, but that would not last. The only viable solution was a newborn, someone whose chakra paths were completely new and open to anything, someone who could adapt to the power of the Kyuubi and keep the body from overloading if the seal was ever cracked later on in life."

Kakashi wasn't stupid. Sandaime-sama knew he had figured out where this was going, and the widening of his one visible eye only confirmed it.

"He sealed… the Kyuubi… Sensei sealed the Kyuubi in his own son."

The jounin hadn't attempted to kill the child yet. Perhaps things would be okay.

"We think the boy's mother, who knew about what was to happen – Yondaime told her – ran because she wanted no part in taking care of a child that had her lover's killer inside. She is most likely not coming back, and if she does she will probably try to kill the boy. We need someone who can be spared to raise him and will protect him from that. Not just from his mother, but from others in the village. Yondaime's hope was that his son become a hero, as he did, but there will undoubtedly be those who will not see the boy as anything but the monster inside."

Kakashi did not say anything. He looked far away and Sandaime wondered if the last part of his speech had even been heard. The infant, who was surprisingly still sleeping, began to shift again, although he seemed to be closer to waking than before. _Stay asleep, little one. Now is not the time to draw attention to yourself._

"Kakashi," Sarutobi said sternly, "you are the only one who can take care of this child. ANBU forces cannot be spared. Chuunin and genin do not have the ability to protect him from more powerful enemies. Very few of the jounin can be trusted, fewer still are available, and only one of those available was even remotely close to the Yondaime. There is no doubt he would have had you treat the boy as a nephew anyway. Of all the choices, he would want you to be the one."

The copy-ninja seemed to shake out of his stupor somewhat. He had focused on the Hokage by the end of the speech. The Sandaime figured that it was now or never. He would lay the cards on the table. If Kakashi refused, he would try to persuade reasonably but if it did not work—

"The council is only giving me one chance. Either you take the boy in right here, right now or… or they have ordered his execution for tonight."

That got the jounin's attention. At first the Sandaime thought he would agree. The infant would live.

Then Kakashi's one eye blazed with fury as he jumped up, "Then _kill _it! _Kill_ the _fucking demon_! That bastard _killed_ our _men_!_ Killed_ my _comrades_! That _thing_ killed _him_! And _you_ want to let it _live?_ What the _hell_ kind of Hokage are you?"

Sarutobi's calm demeanor rapidly deteriorated into cold fury as he listened to Kakashi speak. "I am the _only_ kind of Hokage there is, boy. I am a leader who cares for his people. _All_ of his people. This _child_, this _human being_ is one of the people I was charged with taking care of and I will do my _damnedest_ to make sure that happens."

"It's a _monster_ – "

"Do you really believe that? If Yondaime were here right now, if your _sensei_ were here this very minute, could you really tell him, straight to his face that his son, the child he wanted to raise with his whole heart is nothing more than the vicious monster _that he put there himself?_ Do you really believe that it didn't break his heart that he had to put his own son's very _existence_ in danger in order to save his village?"

The silver-haired ninja visibly started at that. It was a bittersweet triumph for the Hokage as it meant there was a chance the infant could be saved, yet if one of those closest to the Yondaime had not stopped to think how the man himself had felt about his son, how could the rest of the village be expected to do any better?

"Kakashi, my boy," Sarutobi said, gently now as if coaxing a mouse out of its hole. He took a few steps towards the jounin, praying it was the right move and slipped his own finger into the fist of the child. The infant reacted right away and then pulled the finger close to his chest, as if he were cuddling it.

"Kakashi, is this the action of a vicious monster? Or can you see the helpless infant boy who needs your care?"

The copy-ninja merely stared for several minutes. The child squirmed in the Hokage's arms and the Sandaime knew he would not stay asleep much longer. That he had not awakened at all yet was a small miracle in and of itself.

Finally, the young jounin took a shuddering breath and held out his arms. "Fine. If I'm the only one who can handle this, I suppose it's the least I can do for Sensei. But I'm warning you. I _really_ wasn't kidding when I said I had no clue what I'm supposed to do."

The Hokage didn't even bother hiding the sigh of relief that left his mouth. When he got home tonight he was getting so drunk he'd have a hangover till the end of next week. "I'll have one of the mothers from the north district come over to help teach you what you'll need to know."

The Sandaime passed the bundle back to Kakashi. It was awkward this time around too, as the copy-ninja still didn't know how to hold it correctly, and it had started squirming around a lot more. The Hokage didn't say a word, instead shifting Kakashi's arms around until he finally was holding it securely. It still felt a little weird, but he figured he'd better get used to it pretty quickly.

Then suddenly, as if it knew everything was now all right, that it would be okay to greet the world for the first time, it opened its eyes. The bundle stared up at him and Kakashi had to sit back down in a kind of shocked amazement. It gazed at him with bright, gorgeous blue eyes that blazed with a sort of fiery ice. _Gods above_, Kakashi thought, _he really is your son, Sensei._ And for a moment the world had been perfect.

Then it started crying bloody murder.

* * *

**A/N**: So that people don't start point out my errors: Yes, I know Kakashi is old(er). I really liked the idea of Kakashi taking care of Naruto, but I also think that even for a ninja having a 14 year old raise an infant is a bad idea. See disclaimer 1 above.

Right now this story could stand as a one shot of sorts, but I am desperately going to try and write some more chapters. I do have a few ideas and I really like this story but college has a nasty habit of vying for my attention in the form of midterms. Right now, Kakashi is still a little volatile, but I plan to mellow him out into the excellent shinobi we all know and love.

Other than that, tell me what you think! I've discovered that reviews really _are_ like crack so it might encourage me to write more. Not making any promises, but I'll do my best.


	2. Training

**Rating**: PG

**Pairings**: None!

**Spoilers**: Very vague Kakashi-background stuff.

**A/N**: All right, so I did some researching, because other than Kakashi's age, I wanted to get as many of the facts correct as possible. The hunt for Shikamaru's birthday was on. Low and behold I discovered the twenty-second of September as a day for celebration (I'm a bit of a Shika fan…just a little.) Except the problem came when almost every single site said he was 13, Naruto was thirteen, and Kakashi was 26. The hell?! I thought Naruto was 12? When did that happen? So I came to an executive decision.

**This story is officially AU.**

I hate saying that, because the story is actually written as close to cannon as possible, but it seems that my muse is just as fond of Shika-chan as I am, and we wanted to make him a little older so that we could show a little of his personality. Hopefully, those of you who have managed to overlook my three-year (four-year? I don't know anymore) time warp will manage to overlook the fact that I am making Shika about six _months_ older than in the manga. I know at least one person who reviewed expressed some concern about that, and I ask that they will forgive me and keep reading for the story itself.

**ETA:** Holy crap! I cannot believe I misspelled Shikamaru's last name through the entire chapter! I cannot thank Lupanari enough for pointing that out. Jeez, and I call myself a Shika fan...

**Disclaimer**: If it were mine, the epilogue of Naruto would show Temari running around with kids who had suspiciously high IQs...

**Summary**: The infant's cries slowed down and lowered in volume, and Kakashi found himself fighting down a smile of triumph. Seriously, it was _not_ that big of a deal.

* * *

Fire in Your Eyes

by Psychick

Chapter 2: Training

The hour and a half involved in waiting for help to arrive was probably the longest hour and a half Kakashi had ever suffered through, and that was including the mission to the Earth country where he had been forced to remain completely motionless for nearly eight hours in order to escape detection. The baby – Kakashi figured he'd couldn't really call it a bundle anymore – gave off a piercing screech while it was crying that made the copy-nin want to do nothing more than put his hands over his ears and walk away. He had floundered a bit before the Hokage had rattled off a few suggestions to try and calm it down, at which point he… floundered a lot more than before. He refused to call it panicking. He had faced down crowds of enemies with nothing more than a few kunai and his father's blade. He had infiltrated the strongholds of several lords across the continent. He had even been captured at one point as a chuunin and freed five days later and not _once_ had he panicked. A one-day-old newborn could not possibly force him to start.

Sandaime realized that the best thing to do for the poor jounin would be to contact one of the women of the north district as soon as possible. Unfortunately, as he had been doing his best to keep the revelation about the Kyuubi's whereabouts a secret, there was no one around to take up the task while he helped the silver-haired ninja himself. In any case, the village was still in shambles and there were other things to attend to besides a wailing infant that were slightly more important.

He informed the teen of all this, feeling a wave of pity as Kakashi's face silently begged him for help. It really would be best if the boy started to try figuring things out on his own. He wouldn't always have someone to help him out, and every child had a different kind of discipline. This wasn't a training session. The silver-haired ninja's Sharingan couldn't be used to copy a few moves that someone else had demonstrated to calm down their own baby.

"One last thing," the Sandaime called back as he was walking out the door, "No one else besides a select few ANBU and a some others know about the boy, outside of the council. I would prefer to keep it this way. I think Rin deserves to know, but other than her please refrain from speaking of this with anyone."

Kakashi understood that this was an order more than a polite request. "Yes, sir," he practically shouted over the increasingly loud cries of the baby, and then the Hokage had stepped out of the house, slid the door behind him and streaked off toward help. The copy ninja decided he was lucky the old man hadn't _walked_ all the way there.

Even so, Konoha was a large place and it would take a good ten minutes to get to the richer side of town. After that, who knew how long it would take to find someone who could help them? If they weren't busy trying to fit three families in a house built for one, they would have to have experience with taking care of kids. Chances were anybody with that criteria would have a kid of their own they would be taking care of and probably wouldn't want the burden of teaching a useless jounin adoptive guardian. Although, come to think of it, Kakashi was pretty sure that a fourteen-year-old with the cumulative babysitting experience of two hours knew more than he did right now. Maybe the Hokage would just send _her_ over.

Speaking of which, once they found someone to come over, that person would have to walk back to his house. All of this meant that it wasn't inconceivable that he would be left to his own devices for the better part of the day. Letting the baby continue its mission to deafen the entire village was obviously not an option, so the jounin started attempting to calm it on his own.

As a ninja, Kakashi had to be innovative when he was surprised by an enemy, creating an attack plan as soon as possible and needing it four minutes ago. His intelligence, tracking skills and sharp senses made this an easier task, and he was a better ninja for it. However, despite the fact that the Uchiha clan was rather large, he was one of very few, little-known copy ninja, which gave him an advantage that he frequently exploited and relied upon. Innovation was all well and fine, but he often still clung to the rules and regulations of the shinobi way. Sometimes doing so kept him up at night, with one-eyed ghosts that haunted his dreams, but not following them was often worse.

So, copy-nin that he was, his first attempt at quieting the baby involved imitation. He had noticed the Hokage gently rocking it after he had initially picked it up and thought it was as good a place as any to start. He was still unsure and uncomfortable with holding the newborn—that word was coming up a lot lately—and his first attempts at moving it back and forth were too…something. Too hard? Too soft? No, probably not too soft, as it began to cry louder than before (was that even possible?) and Kakashi didn't think that being too _gentle_ would ever be an issue with something as fragile as this baby. Too hard, then. Cursing himself for not having his Sharingan activated in the presence of the Sandaime, he tried to slow down the back and forth motion of his arms. For a brief, shining moment it seemed as if he was succeeding and that maybe he wouldn't need as much help as he thought. The infant's cries slowed down and lowered in volume, and Kakashi found himself fighting down a smile of triumph. Seriously, it was _not_ that big of a deal.

Especially when the volume picked back up again. The jounin let out a growl of frustration and stopped his movement, ready to bang his head against a wall. It might have been less painful, and _definitely_ less awkward. But after taking a breath and counting to ten, which didn't calm him down any but gave him time to think, he decided he must be doing something right if he had managed a lull in the wailing, and kept trying.

Several times the teen thought he had accomplished it. There was even a point at which the infant did nothing more than take quick, hitched breaths for a full thirty seconds before it started up again. Whatever he had been doing failed to work a second time, but it gave him minute hope and he kept at it. Even so, half an hour later he had run out of ideas and decided that a change in tactics was in order.

Seeing as how copying had failed, not to mention the rather unavoidable fact that there was no one else around _to_ copy, Kakashi headed over to the boxes. A ninja was always careful to retrieve as many kunai and shuriken from the battlefield as he could so as not to waste supplies—or need to buy more—but it wasn't practical if you were making a hasty retreat, and there was always that wayward weapon that you were _sure_ you had thrown in this direction during training but for all your shinobi skills you just couldn't seem to find it. Taking stock of your supplies, weapons and med kit alike, was a necessary task so that you were never caught unawares. It also let you keep a list fresh in your mind so that those few weapons that you rarely used were not forgotten in a situation where they became helpful. Hopefully the same theory could be applied to whatever had been dumped on his living room floor. He griped the baby a little tighter in his left arm as he rummaged around with his right.

The jounin found he had been correct in his original observation that one of the boxes held clothes. Mostly they were one-piece outfits—light blue ones, dark blue, red, a few green (he made a mental note to throw those out as soon as possible) and one yellow one with each having its own pattern of cats, dogs, ducks, shapes and various other seemingly random objects. There was one heavier jacket for the colder months. It didn't often snow in Konoha, but it did get chilly and people tended to wrap up. The copy-nin even pulled out a pair of the smallest sandals he had ever seen, although they looked as if they were still a little too big for the infant yet, before throwing them back in the box and closing it up. There was obviously nothing in here that was going to be useful.

The second box was also unhelpful as it contained towels, soap, shampoo and something that looked like a small bucket or tub. Obviously they were supplies to give the baby a bath, but that was probably not the reason it was wailing away. The next three boxes he opened also had nothing in them he thought would help (did he _really_ need all of this?) but the last one contained several cans of powdered baby formula. He pulled one out with a hand and brought it over to his small kitchen, reading the directions as he walked, only to realize that he would need something to put the formula in.

The silver-haired teen spent some time rummaging through one of the boxes that he had seen bottles in with one hand, which quickly became frustrating as everything fell back into place after he had pushed it out of the way. He wondered if it was safe to put the infant down. Just laying it on the floor seemed wrong, but with the way it would squirm around every once in a while, he wasn't sure it wouldn't fall off the sofa. In the end Kakshi held onto it, but started taking everything out of the box until he reached what he wanted.

The directions on the outside of the canister turned out to be one of the easiest things about this day. They were clear and generally concise: boil water, measure powder, mix formula and let cool. The jounin made a lot of banging and clattering noises trying to get his smallest pot from the clutter that was his kitchen cabinet one handed, which added to his raging headache but thankfully did not incite the infant to raise his volume. Setting the water on the stove, he went back to the boxes to check on the rest of his options incase the formula didn't work.

Kakashi had gone through most of the supplies so there wasn't much left to look through, mostly blankets and one random piece of cloth that didn't quite have the shape of a blanket but was otherwise unidentifiable. There was a horrifying moment when he realized that the last box contained diaper-changing supplies, and that a fresh diaper might be exactly what the infant needed. The teen was fairly sure he could figure out how to change a diaper, but the fact that he would have to (eventually) had him ready to drop the whole idea and hand the baby back to Sandaime-sama. He immediately crushed that thought for a few reasons. One was the fact that there were no unpleasant smells emanating from it (so he could put that inevitable obstacle off for now), the second was that the water had finished boiling, and the third was that he didn't like the idea of letting down yet another person from his team, especially his sensei, dead or not.

By this point the infant was actually starting to sound hoarse from all its crying, so the copy-nin began rushing to get the formula together. The gods must have been laughing at him, he thought, as he fumbled around with one hand to open the seal on the canister.

Then he wasn't thinking much of anything as the baby slipped from his grasp.

It wasn't much of a fall. He had just been so frustrated that he hadn't been paying much attention to his grip on the infant loosening ever so slightly over time. His ninja reflexes had him reacting right away, pulling the infant to his chest with both hands before he lost his hold on it completely. Yet as the canister crashed to the ground, all Kakashi could hear was the pounding of his heart in his ears, in his throat and his instincts screaming, _Protect! Protect!_ The problem was _he_ was the person the baby needed protecting from and it left him frozen in the middle of his kitchen, conflicting emotions causing him a lot of confusion along with the pain from pressuring his fractured ribs. Eventually he calmed down, although his legs were oddly shaky and he still gripped the infant tightly. He righted a kitchen chair that he hadn't had a chance to get to since the attack and sat down in it, trying to slow his breathing and rocking the baby again. It had about as much of an effect on the crying as it had before, but it made _him_ feel better, so he kept at it and muttered, "It's okay, it's okay. I've got you, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I've got you now, it's okay."

The jounin wasn't sure he long he sat there like that, mumbling reassurances and apologies to someone, but he _was_ sure that until he had some help he wasn't going to let go of the infant at all. The idea that he could have dropped the baby, _Sensei's son_, was making him a little sick. The silver-haired teen may have been mostly clueless about kids, but even _he_ knew that letting one fall from your arms could do serious damage. Images started flying through his brain. He could have given it brain damage, he could have _killed_ it, with the kind of support its head needed the ninja in him could easily see the neck snap—

A polite knock sounded on his front door, cutting of the destructive line of thought. Kakashi stood up very carefully and instead of sliding the entrance open with his hands he used his foot to nudge it until he could move it the rest of the way with his elbow.

"Hello," said the woman standing in front of him. She had an eyebrow raised at the odd way of opening the front entrance but didn't comment, instead opting to focus on the screaming baby in Kakashi's arms. "I'm Nara Yoshino. Hokage-sama sent me over to help you out." The child resting on her hip had slid down, and she lifted him up slightly to readjust his weight. The boy just lay his head back down on his mother's shoulder and yawned. "This is Shikamaru. He'll probably just sleep the whole time I'm here, so I'll lay him down and we can get right to work."

Kakashi nodded in a slight daze before realizing he was being rude. "Sorry. I'm, uh, Kakashi. I mean Hatake Kakashi. Go ahead and come in. Um… I guess you can put him on my futon, but it's down the hallway. Is that okay? I mean, is it safe to just put them down and walk away?"

Yoshino entered and began to walk towards where Hatake-san had pointed, at first only giving half her attention to the ninja's questions until she realized he was serious. She didn't stop moving, but she started to wonder what she had gotten herself into when she agreed to the Hokage's request.

The young mother thought about her answer carefully, easily falling into a teaching mode. The way he had worded his question, Hatake-san seemed to have associated Shika-chan with his boy, but that was a bad habit to get into. Her son was already seven months old and that made him light-years ahead, relatively, of the newborn orphan.

"Shika-chan will be fine," she replied as she entered Hatake-san's bedroom, speaking loudly to be heard, "but you can't compare what is okay for my son to what you should do for your infant. Babies do a lot of developing when they're this young, so you have to pay attention to what _he_ needs and not what Shika-chan needs. Right now you should be close enough to get to the boy right away, even if he's sleeping." Shika-chan had done exactly as she had thought he would when the woman laid him down and his breathing evened out as soon as hit the futon, despite the racket coming from his future playmate. She stepped back into the hallway, coming face to face with the jounin.

"So… as long as I'm nearby I can put it on a blanket or something?" the he asked.

The black-haired woman stared at her new student, unsure if he had misspoken or not. Hatake-san looked back at her with slightly apprehensive eyes, but no indication that he had realized what he said was wrong in any way. She took two steps toward the teen, invading his personal space enough that he almost stepped back in reflex, and slapped him upside the head.

"Ow! What the—" Kakashi made sure his grip on the infant was still tight before going on, "what the hell was that for?! I just asked a question!"

"You called the baby an _it_! What kind of guardian calls a child an 'it'?" Yoshino berated him. "He's not an object! You wouldn't call a brother, or another family member an 'it' would you? There are pronouns for this kind of thing! 'He'! Consider it my first bit of instruction! 'He.'"

"Okay, okay! Sorry. As long as I'm nearby I can put _him_ on a blanket."

The woman frowned, "Better. But if you call the boy an 'it' after this I won't hesitate to correct you again. And yes, to answer your question. Although, if you put him down now he might get more upset. Babies like the security of someone holding them close, so letting him go will just increase his anxiety. For now I'll do as much as I need to so that we can get him to stop crying. What have you tried already?"

Kakashi recounted the little that he had managed to get through so far, although he skipped the part where he almost dropped the boy. Even without punishment, the jounin wasn't going to forget what he had done soon. If the crazy woman was going to hit him for an incorrect pronoun, which he would admit had been pretty cold of him now that pointed it out, there was no telling what she would do if the copy-nin told her of his biggest mistake.

Nara-san praised him for what he had done right and gave him a few other pointers. She made the formula as he watched, although she managed to hit him again (with a wooden spoon this time) when he was about to give the bottle to the baby without making sure it wouldn't burn his mouth. In the end that didn't help either. The kid wouldn't even drink half of the formula no matter what coaxing sounds the young mother made. They tried a few other things, none of which were of any help, and finally Kakashi relented to the dreaded diaper changing when Nara-san pointed out that he would have to learn at some point.

"Besides," the black-haired woman suggested to convince him, "it might have nothing to do with whether he needs a new one or not. Maybe it's just an old one and he feels uncomfortable."

Kakashi gave her a disgruntled look that was clearly disbelieving, "Does that kind of thing happen a lot?"

"Well…no. They don't usually stay, you know, _clean_ that long but if it gets you to agree, sure."

It was while they were changing the baby that Kakashi ran into his first assignment-related problem.

"What is _that_?" Nara-san questioned.

_Oh shit,_ Kakashi thought. They had pulled up the boy's outfit to reveal a design on the infant's stomach that no normal baby would have. It spiraled around his navel covering the lower half of his torso, and around the coil was writing that would offshoot in eight different places. It looked like someone had used a magic marker to draw a stylized sun on the boy, or at least it would have if the damn thing hadn't been glowing a bright orange-red.

_Sensei,_ the jounin prayed, _I hope you knew what you were doing_. Seals weren't entirely Kakashi's strong point, but he could tell right away that this one was incredibly powerful. The writing was intricate and almost entirely indiscernible, although part of that was from its shrunken size. What worried the copy-nin was that the Kyuubi was able to affect a seal this strong. He wasn't sure whether that was a testament to the Yondaime's skills or the power of the fox.

Of course, the more immediate issue was how to explain everything to Nara-san without actually explaining it. Kakashi decided to mix some truth into his lie. Nara-san had said she was married to a shinobi, but that she herself was a civilian so the woman probably wasn't able to distinguish between seal types. "It looks like a protective seal. Some ninja must have needed to use one on him during the attack."

"They're not supposed to glow like that, are they?"

The silver haired ninja studied it carefully, running his finger lightly over the spiral to gauge what was going on with the fox chakra. There was a chance he would be able to push it back without using any special techniques, which could interfere with the seal, but if he wasn't careful he would ruin the it entirely and Yondaime-sama's sacrifice would be for nothing. It was times like these that he almost wished he had a Byakugan to clearly distinguish chakra patterns in the body, but his Sharingan wasn't without its uses. It would give him a general idea of what was happening.

As soon as Kakashi activated his eye, he knew what the problem was. There was a mass of energy that was dense, but somehow very weak at the same time, trying to smother a lighter chakra mass. The Kyuubi was trying to take over the host body even in its current condition and the young infant didn't like the feeling apparently. It was an easily solved problem, especially with the fox's chakra caged up as it was. It wouldn't take more than a metaphorical slap on the wrist to the invading energy to get it to back off. If he could just control his chakra enough…

He quickly pulled his hand back, but he still overdid it slightly. The glowing faded, as did the mark after it, but a faint red handprint was left behind. He had needed to give a fairly intense burst—small, but intense—and had apparently given the newborn a slight chakra burn. The jounin frowned, annoyed that his chakra control had weakened. He would have to work on that at some point so that he didn't keep hurting his charge if the fox demon tried a similar stunt. But just as this thought occurred to him, the handprint disappeared.

_Weird,_ he thought to himself. _Maybe I just pressed too hard?_ But no, he had barely been touching the infant's stomach.

"Is it gone?" Nara-san startled him.

"What?" he replied incredulously. _Why would she want the Kyuubi's seal gone?_

"The protective seal. Did you get rid of it? I think that was what made him upset."

"Oh," was the copy-nin's intelligent reply, mentally berating himself for forgetting his lie so quickly. What was his problem today? "Yeah, it's…I dealt with it." And sure enough, as they finished up the diaper changing lesson, the boy's wailing became soft crying, then choked sobs and finally he fell back to sleep.

"Poor guy," Yoshino cooed, "all those tears must have worn you out." She gently stroked the baby's hair, glad to have a respite for both herself and Hatake-san. Crying infants gave anyone a headache after a while, and the poor ninja had been subjected to it for much longer than her.

Suddenly, a figure lazily crawled into her field of vision, flopped down near the infant and yawned. "Shika-chan! I didn't think you'd be crawling around so soon. Sorry, baby, I would have brought you out otherwise. Did we wake you up?" Her son looked up at her with one half-lidded eye, and then glanced over at the newborn before slowly pushing himself back up and crawling towards her lap. She picked him up and cuddled him, glad that her seven-month old had never done much crying himself. Yoshino smiled at the copy-nin, "I still don't know if that means 'yes' or 'no'."

Her smile faded a little. The seventeen year old was lying on his back with his arms crossed over his face, clearly worn out himself. "How are you holding up, Hatake-san?" she asked, trying to see how well he was dealing with the stress.

"Badly," he replied. At least he was being honest. "This… things have been happening too fast, too intense. I can't even go do something to take my mind off it now, either. I'm frustrated and angry and…and…"

"Scared?" she offered when he didn't finish his sentence.

"I don't know a damn_ thing_ about raising a kid, Nara-san!" the silver-haired teen burst out, sitting up suddenly. "Those boxes over there don't mean shit to me! I don't have the instinct a mother would have—I don't even have the instinct a civilian would have! Even normal protection detail doesn't use this much concentration or stamina, because you don't usually have to take care of the client yourself! I almost _dr—_" the jounin cut himself off, eyes widening, then looked away.

He breathed deeply before continuing a little more calmly. "And on top of all that I have to deal with _this_." He waved his arm encompassing the area around himself. " I've got all this…this damn _anger_ that I can't always get a grip on. 'A shinobi shows no emotion.' But lately it's been hard to do. I'm not even sure I should, because a friend once said something-. But if I ruin another mission because I can't holdback…"

"Okay, first things first," the woman replied firmly when it seemed like the outburst was over, "Mother's intuition has very little to do with anything. You think I raised Shika-chan on my own? My mother helped me, my husband helps me, and I did a _lot_ of reading up on babies. They don't just come out of the womb with instructions. And you're not the only ninja to wonder about his ability to raise a child. Shikaku would kill me if he ever found out I told you, but he had a lot of insecurities, too. But that's why I'm here, Hatake-san. I'll get you sorted out, and if you ever need more advice just ask. I'll even lend you my books.

"As for the emotion thing… 'not showing emotion' is not the same as 'not _having_ emotion'. And seriously, I know you're a shinobi and all, but you're a teenage guy too. Hormones do weird things, so just be glad you're not a woman. You'll get through it. Besides," she said a little more gently, "emotion will help you understand kids a little better. They tend to be prone to that kind of thing. Okay?"

When Hatake-san continued to stare at the ground near his feet Yoshino leaned over to slap the back of his head.

"Ow! Jeez, could you stop that?"

"Were you listening to me at all?" the young mother said exasperatedly.

"Yeah, I was. Okay. Thanks, I actually feel a little better. Or more controlled anyway."

"Good," Yoshino replied, "then get some tea started, take some aspirin for your headache, and we'll start going through all your supplies while the boys are still quiet."

The two adults placed the sleeping children on a blanket while they started opening the boxes so that Nara-san could properly explain what everything was for and how to use it. Most of it was actually pretty self-explanatory, the teen realized, now that there was no pressure to use it. Still, Nara-san was patient with him, answering any of his questions without any condescension, which he was glad for. They even got sidetracked occasionally and talked easily together, getting to know each other well enough that she began to insist he use her first name and he offered up his own. It took them another hour before they finally reached the last few items.

"…And that makes it easier to—huh. That's strange," Yoshino-san interrupted herself, giving the open package before her a confused look.

"What?" the silver haired ninja asked.

"They gave you a playpen."

Kakashi had no idea what a playpen was and waited a moment for her to explain it to him, but when she continued to stare at it silently, he gave her a verbal nudge. "Am I not supposed to have one?"

The young mother looked up startled, "What? Oh. No, its good, it gives you a safe place to put him when you need to go work on something for a little while. Don't wander out of the house or anything, but when you need to make meals, clean up the house, or even if you just need a break you can put him down in there. Get him some toys to play with as well and he can just amuse himself for a while." She stopped there, but then started to open her mouth to say something before closing it and opening it again.

"What?" he invited her to speak her mind.

"Well, it could be nothing, but… Tsukimi-chan also took in one of the infant orphans and was going through her supplies. It was pretty much the bare necessities. Clothes, food, diapers. I don't even think they gave her a bath set, although she does get an allowance to spend on the girl. But you… they've given you… I mean it's probably none of my business…" Yoshino stumbled over her words, apparently not wanting to offend the ninja even though she had already smacked him with his own wooden spoon.

"They've given me a lot more than just the basics," the copy-nin interrupted to save her from embarrassment. "I was starting to suspect something like that. A lot of this looks a little expensive."

Deciding he must be okay with talking about it, Yoshino ventured a question, "Do you have any idea why? I mean… if it's because you're a ninja… or something… and they've been trying to force this on you by… well, not bribery or anything—" Oh great. That wouldn't offend Kakashi-san at all. Her mouth was going to get her into serious trouble, very soon. Why couldn't she just _think_ first?

Kakashi was a bit annoyed, partly because of what Yoshino-san was implying and partly because her statement may not have been true, but it certainly was going to _look_ that way to the other villagers who had taken in their own kids. An orphan who was going to be around for a month at the most didn't really warrant giving a person every baby product under the sun as the orphanage would have their own supplies to take care of that. However, he wasn't about to go around to all the villagers announcing the conditions of the infant's stay. The jounin had a feeling that this was going to give him problems in the future, but seeing as there was nothing he could do about it right now, he settled for putting the woman at ease.

"This is kind of a special case. Nobody's bribing me or anything. I'm not going to get a bigger allowance either. But…" he paused. He needed to be careful about how he worded this or the young mother would start asking questions that he couldn't answer under the Hokage's orders. "This isn't going to be an interim thing. I've been asked to… well, we're sort of a family now. In a very loose and general sense of the word." He muttered the last bit under his breath.

The woman gave the copy-nin a surprised look. "You mean you've adopted him? Kakashi-san, _why_? He's not a _pet_. You've said yourself you have absolutely no idea how to raise an infant. Why would you decide to adopt a random child?"

The shinobi gave an indignant look, "I know, right? That's what I thought!" Then he sighed, "But it's not exactly random. He's Sen- I mean Yondaime Hokage-sama's kid."

If Yoshino had thought she was surprised before, it was nothing compared to how she felt now. "_Hokage-sama_? I didn't realize he was even seeing anybody! I mean, not that I would have any way of knowing, but you'd think it would have come through the grape vine, or something." She let it sink in. "Incredible. I still don't get why they'd ask you to be the father of Hokage-sama's boy, but—"

Kakashi-san's one eye flashed in anger at her. "_Not_ the father," he snapped. "_Never_ the father. Only Sensei holds that title. I don't care if they swear me to secrecy on that, too. _Nobody_ can replace a person's father. Not even Sensei."

There was a lot of baggage loaded into those statements, Yoshino knew. Growing up around ninja made her aware that shinobi often had issues. Even Shikaku had parts of his job that he just _wouldn't_ discuss with her, not in a thousand years. Some subjects you didn't touch, no matter how careful you thought you were at tiptoeing around them. Pushing just a fraction too hard at open wounds like that could get someone killed. Most times it was a flashback that had the ninja attacking anyone in their way, but sometimes the memories were just too much for the shinobi. She had learned early on to divert the conversation as quickly as possible, and latched onto the first topic that seemed remotely safe.

"Ah. That makes a little more sense then. Most ninja are very close to their sensei, so I guess it's not a big surprise that they might ask you to take in the Hokage's son. Still. I don't mean to offend you, but are you _really_ the best person for the job?"

It was a very blunt statement, the kind that Kakashi was beginning to realize Yoshino-san was very prone to. Unfortunately, he didn't have quite that much leisure, and answering that question wasn't possible. How could he explain that he wasn't just raising a baby, but becoming the buffer between the boy, the Kyuubi and the entire village without giving everything away? In the end, his absence of an answer was just as blunt in a mind-your-own-business kind of way.

Yoshino-san sighed. "All right. Anyway, that's the last of this stuff, so unless you have any more questions I guess we're done for the day. The kids will probably wake up soon, and I'm sure they'll be hungry. I've got housework left too, supper for three families is going to be a bit of a pain." She smiled jokingly at her new friend and took his proffered hand to stand up.

"Are you sure? I didn't give you much of a chance to drink your tea. You're welcome to stay until you do, it'll give you a chance to relax. Ever since this whole mess started, people haven't had much time to pull themselves back together. It's the least I can do."

Yoshino considered it. Truth be told, Kakashi-san was right. She and Shikaku had been lucky to be living away from most of the damage, so there wasn't much repair work that needed done, but Shikaku himself had been involved in the main battle and had gotten severely injured. She and Shika-chan had spent most of the night waiting with other family members at the hospital and what little sleep she had gotten hadn't been restful. Even her son had seemed to be able to sense that something bad had happened and had slept less than usual. Then she had two other families from the south district show up at her doorstep and getting them settled down had taken all morning and some of the afternoon. Just as she thought she could rest, the Sandaime had appeared before her with a request, directions to the center district and very little explanation, and she would have refused him except she really wanted to get out of the house and away from Tamanari-san's five children.

Thinking about the rambunctious family had her inwardly grimacing and shirking her duties. "I guess I can stay a little longer," she answered. Picking up the tea she had left to cool, Yoshino moved to sit on the sofa. Kakashi-san, whose house was actually still a mess from the aftershocks of the fox demon, started picking up the larger pieces of his ceiling from the floor and piling them up at the entrance of his living room. There were a few holes in the roof, which he had managed to patch up earlier, but any type of downpour would become a problem soon. "So now that you know the basics of child-rearing, how do you think you'll do as a guardian?"

Kakashi-san shrugged, "I'm not sure. I've kind of been viewing it as a training session of sorts." He picked up another piece of ceiling, placing it on the pile against the far wall. "Try something, and if that doesn't work try it a little differently, maybe get some advice from a sensei," he looked up at her and gave a kind smirk that was hidden behind his mask but visible in his eye, "and if it still doesn't work, or starts to make things worse, you consider it an incomplete 'jutsu' and try something new."

Yoshino frowned at her tea, "I…guess." She was quiet for a moment. "I can see where that might be easier for you." She took a sip from her cup. "It just seems kind of…harsh. No. Not harsh, that's too much. It's…it's…" she struggled for the right words before changing tactics completely. "You're raising a child, Kakashi-san. You're going to become family to the boy. Someone he's going to put all his trust in because he won't know what to do yet. Someone he'll look up to. If you want to do this right, you have to see him for what he is. He'll have joys that you can share in and fears that you can soothe. He's a human being, Kakashi-san. Not an assignment."

The teen stiffened at that and gave her a probing one-eyed stare that unnerved her for a moment. Then he turned away as if deciding that she really didn't mean anything by it. He had done it before and Yoshino was starting to suspect a pattern to the action, but she couldn't really grasp what it was yet.

"I…didn't really think of it that way," the jounin answered. "Hokage-sama gave me the order himself so I guess I just saw it as another mission assigned to me." It was a reasonable explanation. One that Yoshino should just be able to accept, but something was nagging at the back of her brain.

_It's just your imagination,_ she told herself. _You're over-analyzing things because all the people you know _expected_ to have children. Kakashi-san hasn't even had one full day to adjust. Give him time._

She drank more of the tea and a silence fell over the room, broken only by the steady _clunk, thunk_ of wood on wood as the copy-nin worked his way around the room. Yoshino simply stared at the two children. Shika-chan was beginning to stir again. For a seven month old, her son slept more than normal during the day, she had been told, but he woke up frequently, and seemed to have a knack for waking up at the most opportune time. The young woman swore that her son was smarter than most kids his age even though he barely acted interested in most of his toys, but her own mother had brushed it off, telling her that she had said the same thing about Yoshino when she was an infant.

The youngest in the house hadn't stirred yet, still exhausted, but he hadn't really been fed when he was awake so she estimated it wouldn't be more than an hour before he was up again.

Suddenly a thought occurred to Yoshino. "Kakashi-san, what did the Yondaime name his son? We've been using 'he' all this time to stop you from using 'it' but I never thought to ask you his name."

Kakashi paused in the middle of throwing an armful of wood that he had gathered from his kitchen towards the pile and, instead of landing neatly, it clattered more or less around the heap. "Actually…" he responded hesitantly, knowing he was about to receive another lecture.

"Please tell me you at least know his name."

"Well, I was a little distracted at the time, and the Sandaime ran off to get you without telling me."

"_Kakashi-san—_"

He winced. "I know, I know. I'll go ask as soon as I get a chance. Just, please," the copy-nin said with a mumble, "don't hit me with that damn spoon."

* * *

**A/N**: So I want to try something here. This is my first time posting more than one chapter, and I want to make sure I haven't cut myself off at the knees. When you **review**, and please do, ask me questions about the parts of the story that confused you. I know my writing style has an odd tendency to change a little from chapter to chapter, so your questions might help to keep the flow. I'll try and answer as many as I can within the story, revising past chapters if I have to. Also, do the POV switches confuse people too much? I try to make it clear with cues, but I may have failed.

**Review, review, review**! Right now I'm trying to keep the max time between chapters at two weeks, but reviews can help cut that down!


	3. Naming

**Rating:** PG

**Pairings:** None

**Spoilers:** Some Kakashi background again

**A/N: **First of all, thank you to everyone who reviewed! It's really encouraging to see that so many people are enjoying the story, and that some have come back.

Secondly, in keeping with the idea that everything was the same for Kakashi up until the three year time skip that I have created, there is now a huge gap between when Obito died and the beginning of my story. This means I get to create background. I've stuck to what I know about Kakashi as much as possible, but I _have_ marked the story as AU so to avoid spoilers I didn't look into it too much.

Also, there is angst. You have been warned.

Summary/Snippet: "To answer your question, Kakashi," the Hokage spoke up, receiving the attention from both jounin, "he hasn't been named yet." The copy-nin was beginning to have a bad feeling about this. Sandaime could not possibly be suggesting what he thought the old man was saying.

**Disclaimer:** I really wish I owned Naruto. Why? Because that would mean that I had lots of money.

* * *

Fire in Your Eyes

by Psychick

Chapter 3: Naming

Things went smoothly for the most part after Yoshino-san left. The baby did wake up soon after but this time there were very few tears, which were easily stopped with the leftover formula the jounin heated up, and he fell asleep again soon after. Kakashi was able to finish cleaning up his house as much as possible, make his own supper, wipe his kunai and shuriken down, and put the playpen together with minimal frustration before heading off to sleep. On Yoshino-san's advice, the jounin kept the infant in the same futon that he slept in. This turned out to be an excellent idea as he was woken up at least three times during the night to take care of various demands from the boy.

When Kakashi awoke for the last time it was on his own terms, but he found that the hour was about mid-morning, much later than he was used to getting up. Since the baby was still sleeping soundly the copy-nin picked him up and placed him in the playpen in the living room so he could make breakfast and set about planning his day. His promise to find out the infant's name was foremost in his mind and most likely Sandaime-sama wouldn't be too busy to refuse the jounin if he simply walked in. If worse came to worse he could speak with the Hokage while the old man was in the genin assignment office. Afterwards he would have to pick up the monthly check he would be receiving for his own expenses, spend a few hours training and then….

Then what? He wasn't taking on missions anytime soon, which meant he wouldn't be leaving the village. There was no traveling to do, no reporting in to a client, which left him with a lot of free time in the afternoon. There would be some time were he would have to take care of the infant obviously, but what other things could he do around here? There was the occasional get-together of chuunin and jounin, he knew, but he had never been very sociable, spending most of his time involved in making himself a better ninja. Plus he had a feeling he would feel very, very weird carrying around a baby in front of all of his fellow shinobi.

Said infant had woken up, if the fussing from the other room was any indication, so the Kakashi took a bottle of formula that had been prepared from his fridge, heated it, and brought it over.

"Yo," he greeted the baby as he carefully picked the boy up. "I guess you're hungry, huh." Sure enough, as soon as the rubber nipple hit the blue-eyed infant's lips he greedily sucked his meal down. "You aren't going to give me anymore trouble like yesterday, are you? Because I don't think I can stay completely sane if you do. Why don't we make a truce? You keep the crying to a minimum and I become your eternal slave. This way I get to keep my sanity and you get fed. Agreed?"

Blue eyes roamed around the room, never focusing on any one object for more than a few seconds, and a quiet _sluck, sluck_ sound as the boy drank was the only answer Kakashi received.

"Right, I'll hold you to that then."

After they were finished with the feeding routine, which did not involve any surprise spit-ups this time, the jounin set about gathering extra diaper supplies, an extra outfit (he still had to get rid of those dark green ones), and a pacifier from the boxes, another bottle of formula from the fridge and the light green blanket from the floor, placing them in his backpack. There was a sling for carrying the baby in that wrapped around his shoulders and back. It was the easiest way to carry the infant, but it put weight on the left side of his ribcage and even switching to the other side didn't lessen the pain of his fractured ribs much. He made sure to take a couple of painkillers and added 'see a med-nin' on his to-do list.

The whole thing took a good chunk of time, and Kakashi set out much later than he had planned. It was annoying, but he made up his mind to keep the backpack prepared ahead of time from now on and start getting ready early when he had somewhere to be.

"Yosh," he said, stepping out the door and locking it, "let's go."

The sights and sounds of Konoha, as the silver-haired ninja set off at a brisk pace, were paradoxically somber and uplifting at the same time. The banging of hammers on rooftops could be heard, and shouts from the foreman echoed around the town as the villagers all pitched in to help rebuild homes and apartments. It was one of the points about Konoha that secretly made Kakashi more proud of his home village than almost anything else. People were willing to give up their time and energy, gaining nothing in return, to help out their neighbor when things got really rough.

Yet as he glanced around with his uncovered eye, there seemed to be a heavy cloud that had settled over everyone. The stores that usually bustled with shoppers were all closed, and any greetings that were thrown his way were half-hearted, an unusual sight for the normally friendly people of the Hidden Leaf Village. Children ran back and forth across the jounin's path, but none of them were playing games or laughing. Instead, they all carried boxes of nails, tools, or small planks of wood from one district to another as needed.

If anyone thought it was strange that a hitai-ate wearer carried an infant, they never mentioned it. The teen reasoned that they would have more important things on their mind, but it didn't make him feel any less irrationally self-conscious. He was halfway to his destination before he realized that his pace had quickened unintentionally, and forced himself to slow his steps. Getting himself worked up over little things like this was not going to be helpful to anyone.

A small whimper had him looking down at the infant hanging around his chest. The boy had been about to fall asleep again, but Kakashi's jostling had woken him up slightly. "Sorry, kiddo," he apologized while shifting the sling to make sure it was secure. "You can close your eyes again. I'll be more careful, promise." The infant's soft breathing quickly evened out at the silver-haired teen went to continue on his way. As he looked up he noticed a man, wearing saw-dusted clothes as well as carrying a toolbox and several two by fours, giving him a strange glance. As soon as their eyes met, the carpenter looked away sheepishly, but Kakashi had already deciphered it's meaning.

He supposed it was a little weird that he would talk out loud to the infant in the streets, but it actually seemed natural to the copy-nin. Yoshino-san had made a lot of cooing sounds and attempts at coaxing the boy yesterday afternoon, and Kakashi had picked up on that habit during the night. The truth was the teen had spent so much time living on his own that it no longer bothered him to realize that he occasionally spoke out loud to no one. There wasn't much distance between that and speaking to a person who couldn't answer you.

Finally, he reached the main office of the Hokage. An ANBU stood guard at the door, announcing the presence of the Sandaime better than any sign would. After an attack on the village, it was typical for the Hokage to have an entourage to ensure he would be safe from any enemies who thought they could finish off the weakened village. Some claimed that it was really unnecessary—a Hokage was the strongest shinobi in the village after all—but in reality the Sandaime couldn't be watching his back every minute of the day as he finished up paperwork, strengthened their defenses, and saw to it that the townspeople could rebuild their homes as soon as possible. Although the irony of the situation did not escape Kakashi, as he was about to walk into the room with the vessel of the very being who had taken the life of the last Hokage with out any protest.

The masked woman did not stop him, however, and after giving a polite knock and receiving an invitation to step in, he opened the door.

"Ah, Kakashi. What perfect timing. I've just finished explaining things to Rin."

The brown-haired medic-nin turned towards the doorway and faced her comrade, giving him a weary smile. "Hello, Kakashi."

He gave he a nod by way of a greeting and turned back to the Hokage. "If I'm interrupting anything I can wait outside."

"No, no," Sandaime-sama waved it off, "Rin has already finished giving me the reports from the hospital and I didn't really have any more to add."

"I'll let you two discuss things then." The girl said with a polite bow to both of the men.

"I won't be long. You might as well stay for this," Kakashi told his former team member. "Hokage-sama, I promised Yoshino-san I would come in as soon as possible and ask. What's the boy's name?"

Rin perked up at this for the first time really seeing what the silver-haired teen held in his arms. "Is that…is that him? Can I… I mean do you mind if I…?"

He hesitated. If Sandaime-sama had told Rin everything, then she knew about the Kyuubi. She didn't seem angry, so it was probably safe to let her approach the infant. More importantly, he reminded himself, it was okay for her to approach _him_. They may have been distant to each other, but there was no bad blood between them over everything that had happened and neither had ever said that avoiding each other was for the best. But a small part of the copy-nin still balked at being so close, unreasonably afraid for the med-nin's safety. _Nothing will happen_, he mentally scolded himself, _we're in the Hokage's office. Tell her it's okay._

He was a moment too late.

"I'm sorry," Rin stuttered, "I shouldn't have asked, that was—he's probably sleeping and…"

"I'm sure," Sandaime-sama interrupted her, "that Kakashi is simply wondering how you will react to him. Not everyone is willing to accept these things so easily and it _is_ his job to protect the boy." The pointed looked the jounin received was a bit annoying. _Yes, thank you, I'm scum for hating a baby. I get it. _However, it got him out of having to admit the real reason for not answering the medic-nin, so he didn't push it.

"It's alright Rin. I don't mind. He'll probably sleep right through it anyway." The girl approached eagerly and her face became much more animated at the sight of the small child. She stroked the boy's cheek gently with one finger and cooed over his tiny features. _It must be a woman thing_, Kakashi decided, as cooing was much different than simply conversing in his mind. _Their brains must be wired to speak in high-pitched voices around children. Why? Please tell me it's not an important developmental stage._

Sandaime smiled at the picture before him. Rin had reacted as he had expected her to when he relayed the story of the Yondaime's fate. Tears for her sensei, and anxiety for the life of his young descendant. The fact that the demon fox lived on in side of the child did little more than to surprise her, before she questioned the reaction of others. It had been a very medic-like response, concerned about the _life_ rather than the _revenge_. It was unfortunate that her openness of emotions had never made the impression upon the copy-ninja that he had hoped.

"To answer your question, Kakashi," the Hokage spoke up, receiving the attention from both jounin, "he hasn't been named yet."

Kakashi waited for some elaboration and did not immediately ask the obvious follow-up question, simply because he thought he had misunderstood. Who hadn't been named yet? he wondered. Surely not Yondaime's son. He couldn't live his life with people simply referring to him as 'boy.' Of course there was a name. But then who didn't have a name?

"Who gets to name him? Why didn't Sensei name him, or his mother?" Rin was apparently in on this secret person's non-identity. _Maybe they're talking about another orphan?_

"Yondaime and his girlfriend did not wish to know the gender of the baby until he had been born, and it is my understanding that they had only managed to create a list of names before the attack. As both parents are unavailable, that list has essentially been lost leaving someone else to decided on an identity."

The copy-nin was beginning to have a bad feeling about this. A very bad feeling. Sandaime-sama could not possibly be suggesting what he thought the old man was saying. Silently he begged to an unseen power that his suspicions not be confirmed. Unfortunately, the jounin went unheard.

"I thought it best that Kakashi be the one to name him, as you _will_ be taking care of him for quite a while."

"Really?" asked Rin, sounding surprised and turning to the silver-haired teen. "That's great! You'll have to think of something really good. And you'll probably want to give him a name Sensei would approve of, so it will have to be somewhat original. This could take a while, my mother told me she and dad argued forever before deciding on my name. I guess you won't have that problem though, will you?"

"Yeah. Great. My choice."

Sandaime raised an eyebrow at the shinobi. He had thought, from Kakashi's somewhat protective stance as Rin had come nearer to the infant, that there would be no more resistance from the ninja. His expectations were too high apparently, as the expression on the jounin's face showed. "You are not happy with my decision," he stated more than asked.

"I'm not thrilled, anyway."

"We could always let Rin decide on a name I suppose," the old man offered. "It's up to you. The care of this child is completely in your hands, so you will have to choose one way or the other."

Kakashi, however, had stopped listening at "let Rin decide." It was out of the question. If Rin were allowed to choose the name then he wouldn't be able to refuse her if she wanted to be more involved in the blue-eyed infant's life. She would use it as an excuse to try to get close to him again, and that couldn't happen. If he was going to keep his promise to Obito, if he was going to protect her, she had to keep her distance until things were under control. They had proven that two years ago. Even after all this time, on his best days, nothing had changed since then and on others he was worse.

"No. I'll do it. I'll pick the name," he announced firmly, his voice more confident than he felt. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Rin's face fall, and he was halfway to quashing the guilt it caused before stopping himself. _Emotions are okay. Don't let them control you, but don't push them away._ It was still guilt though, something he had never been good with, and when he started to feel sick his mind reacted to protect him, erasing the feeling.

_Damn it. Damn it, Obito._

"Well then, if that's settled and there's nothing else from either of you, you are free to go."

A memory stirred and Kakashi realized he should probably report it. "There is one thing, Hokage-sama. Yesterday, we came across the—" He stopped, remembering the ANBU stationed outside. "Is it safe to discuss…_that_?"

Sandaime nodded and the teen continued, "Yoshino-san and I came across the seal yesterday. I'm not entirely sure—my sharingan can only see so much—but I think the Kyuubi was trying to break the seal and overtake the infant. Its chakra wasn't very strong. The seal is still completely sound; it hasn't cracked at all. I only needed to give it a push with my chakra and it backed off, but until then it causes the boy a lot of discomfort. That seems to be the only side effect."

The news was troubling. If the Kyuubi could affect such a strong seal even at this early stage then there was no telling how much damage it would be able to do later on, or how long the seal would last. Hopefully there was enough time for the demon and human chakra to adapt to each other. This being the case, then there was a chance they could save the boy's life if the seal ever did break, however they would only be given the opportunity to do so if Kakashi could prove that the Kyuubi would not influence the boy. And if the seal _did_ break before the two chakras assimilated, the infant's body would be destroyed from the inside out.

But the Sandaime was getting ahead of himself. There was the possibility that this was just the last vestiges of the fight, a final resistance from a demon not used to being tamed. Too many 'what ifs' and not enough answers. They would have to wait and see.

"Watch for this kind of thing again," he ordered after some thought. "If it gets worse, or better, report back to me immediately. If we want make sure the problem is contained, we must be prepared. We will respond as much as possible. Nothing further. Dismissed."

"Yes, sir," came the reply, and both jounin bowed politely and exited. Rin, being the last one out, closed the door and copy- and medic-nin stood there facing each other. Kakashi knew he should just walk away, that talking to Rin would only lead to trouble, but she was still someone important to him and ignoring her seemed like the wrong thing to do.

"So… I guess you'll be heading back to the hospital then."

Rin shook her head. "Not quite yet. I'm actually on a four-hour break right now. We've been healing people non-stop since the attack and there are still plenty more patients, but I need some sleep or I'll be useless. I'm on a twenty-four hour chakra ban as it is."

The teen looked at his friend more carefully and noticed that the weariness from before had returned to her face. She was exhausted, probably from an adrenaline rush that had died down once she left the med center and a full day of healing. Four hours wasn't going to be enough to completely revitalize her, especially since the meeting with the Hokage had probably cut it down to three, but she would be able to keep going for a day or two more before she really had to quit.

"Go home and sleep," he ordered before turning around and walking away, past the ANBU still standing guard. If they kept up a conversation the brown-haired girl would be wasting time that could be used to take care of her body's needs.

Unfortunately, this didn't stop her. "Kakashi, wait. Kakashi! Can't we just walk together? It won't hurt to talk." The jounin sighed as he came to a stop. If he kept on going she would only follow him until he answered her. She was willing to keep her distance only until he breached the gap, and then she couldn't be shaken off no matter what he tried to do.

"Rin, you can't do this. You'll be needed to help with patients later. I have other things I need to take care of. Get some _re—_"

"How about getting some ramen?"

The silver-haired jounin whirled around to face his companion. Rin's face was very open, pleading, desperate for him to agree, yet he couldn't help but look at her with a small amount of incredulity. "Rin…you _hate_ ramen. There aren't any ramen stands nearby and most places are closed right now anyway. Give it up and _go home_."

"Why?!" she yelled at him. "Why are you still avoiding me? I get that you won't acknowledge my feelings because of Obito. I _get_ that. I promised I wouldn't act on them. But why won't you let me be your friend? Why won't you let anyone close? Weren't you going to protect me? How can you do that if I never _see_ you?"

She had started to cry during her outburst, and even the ANBU was looking a little uncomfortable at being—literally—in the middle of the argument. "It has nothing to do with your feelings," Kakashi tried to explain. "You know I can't…the _mission_. I still haven't—"

"That was two years ago! It was an accident! We were both to blame! The only reason I joined another team was because you were still in the hospital! You can't argue your way out of this one Hatake. We just need to get back together, work on a few low-rank missions, build our teamwork back up—"

"There _was_ no teamwork, Rin!" he shouted, the volume of his voice rising and his anger surfacing. He tried pushing it back, controlling it a little, but it was no use. She couldn't _see_, she wouldn't _realize_ why they had to separate, she was _blinding_ herself to it all and it made him furious. "There _was_ no teamwork! Anyone could have seen it! We weren't fighting the enemy-we were fighting each other! How the hell can we get our teamwork back? There was never any damn teamwork to _begin _with, and it was my fault! I _know_ it was my fault, I _know_ I was acting on my own. I _know_ I have to change it, I know I have to fucking control myself! I _know_ all that so just stop _ask_—"

"WAAAAAAAAAAAA! Wa-waAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"Fuck!" the teen swore. He had forgotten that the infant was sleeping and now he was in serious trouble. If 'guilt' was the emotion he had trouble letting surface, 'anger' was the one he had the most trouble suppressing and the one least helpful to the current situation. He was lucky that it was most likely the boy had just been upset. The jounin didn't think his chakra control would be even remotely stable right now, and Rin was both forbidden from using hers and no better off, emotion wise.

He just had to calm down. Yoshino-san had said that he couldn't manage that then he couldn't expect the same from the baby. _Just breathe. Just let some of the tension go. If you let it go first, then he'll stop crying. Breathe, breathe…_

"Can—should I help?"

"_No_, damn it," Kakashi snapped at the med-nin. "Shit, I didn't mean…Rin, I have to do this myself. I have to take care of him; I can't let everyone else do it for me. I can handle it."

"All right," she whispered, stepping back and wiping away her tears. She hadn't meant to break down like that. She was just supposed to convince Kakashi that they needed to talk, but her exhaustion was creeping up on her and making her more emotional. If she used this time to calm herself, she might be able to salvage the situation. The real reason she wanted to spend some time with him really had nothing to do with their fractured team, but everything was getting mixed up in her head and she had bypassed that completely.

She watched as Kakashi closed the one eye that wasn't covered by his forehead-protector and steadily relaxed, despite the bawling that was coming from his charge. When he seemed to have reached a more tranquil state, he started rocking the baby and shushing it, walking from one side of the hallway to the other. It was a very bizarre image. The copy-nin had proven to be many things—aggressive, confident, arrogant, loyal, calculating, and violent even—but he had never really shown a gentle side. It was nice to see, and Rin began imagining what he would be like when the blue-eyed infant was older and could respond to the jounin. Maybe taking care of a child would be good for Kakashi.

When the boy had calmed down enough that Rin felt she could interrupt, she tried to convince her friend to spend time with her again. "I know you don't want anything from me right now, but that's not what I'm asking for. I just want to talk. I need someone to talk to, and you're the only person who can really understand. Please, Kakashi. Just…just one bowl of ramen, that's all I'm asking."

The silver-haired ninja sighed, and rubbed a hand down his face. "You really want to do this, don't you? Fine. But that's _it_. And not just because of…us. Anyone can see you need sleep. You shouldn't even be up right now."

Rin let out the breath she had bee holding in as the other boy turned his back to walk out. He was in a good mood.

She turned to the ANBU and quickly apologized, "Sorry for that. I'm sure we made you uncomfortable." The woman waved a hand, as if to say it was no problem, but in reality it showed how big of a scene the two had made. If she really didn't mind, she wouldn't have twitched a muscle.

"Hurry up, Rin," Kakashi called back to her in annoyance. The medic-nin smiled a little and chased after him. They may not have been a team for quite a while, but the older teen always seemed to fall back into the role of leading when they were around each other.

* * *

Four years ago, only a few months after Obito had died, Yondaime had been chosen for the position of Hokage. Everyone knew that it had been his dream, and his students and friends couldn't have been happier for the Yellow Flash. The resulting celebration had taken place at a ramen stand where the blond man had proceeded to down a ridiculous amount of food. However, his promotion meant that his workload and responsibilities increased dramatically, and it was too much to expect him to deal with the village problems _and_ finish mentoring a jounin and med-nin. Kakashi was reaching a level that surpassed most ninja of his caliber with the help of the sharingan and Rin's medical training was becoming more intense. On top of all this, the end of the Third Great Ninja War brought about a need for delicate politics between hidden villages, and "delicate" was not something normally associated with the Yondaime.

The end result was that the two teenagers were given missions together, but frequently with a team leader and/or a third team member that they hadn't worked with before. Kakashi did not adapt to this well. He tended to give only the bare minimum of cooperation with any one who hadn't gained his respect, and his respect was not easily gained, as Obito had proven while he was alive.

Obito's death, or rather, the events leading up to his death were not without their mark on Kakashi either. The silver-haired ninja had taken the Uchiha's words to heart, as he began to change his beliefs that emotions were not unnecessary and was determined to keep his promise to protect Rin. It was possibly the worst combination of convictions that the jounin could have come up with for himself.

Beliefs that are spawned from large events witnessed in one's childhood and carried throughout his or her life are difficult, if not impossible, to change over night. Kakashi was no exception. His father's suicide had left a scar on the boy, and for five years he pushed away his emotions to become a better shinobi, a better weapon. The conclusions he had come to about the cause of his father's death were only reinforced every time he successfully completed a mission to the point that it suppressing his feelings had essentially become second nature.

So it was that his first issue, trying to let himself experience the emotions that he had suppressed, had him struggling for months. Many people commented that conversations with him were often the most interesting experience they ever had during that time, as the jounin would appear to be completely uninterested in anything when suddenly his expression would change with no warning. Without any lead up to his outburst, people had no idea if he would react badly or not and some of the older, more cocky ninja often provoked him to get some entertainment out of it. Eventually Kakashi got fed up with this and it resulted in an outburst of anger that seemed to open the floodgates.

Controlling the emotions became his next hurdle. Relaxing and enjoying things wasn't so much of a problem when he was on his own because it was usually Rin, who he had asked for help, who had to drag him out to do something that didn't involved training of one sort or another. It was the more negative emotions that he had no experience dealing with that proved the most difficult. Kakashi tended to lash out when he didn't know what to do.

Adding to all of this was task of protecting Rin, which had several consequences. To Rin it was almost a guilty pleasure at first. She knew he was doing it because of Obito, and she was also aware that Kakashi wanted her to forget about any other relationship than comrades in the field. But she was also a fourteen-year-old girl and romantic emotions and notions were not so easily cast aside; it was nice to have the guy she cared about rescue her in pinch. Then, after about a year, she got into serious trouble and sustained an injury that would take some time to heal. She would live, but to Kakashi that wasn't enough. He hadn't_ been there_, hadn't _protected her_ and he felt both guilty, as if he himself had caused the wound, and that he had failed Obito. Rin had never bothered asking which emotion was the one that had him losing his lunch right in front of her when it became too much, but from that point on his protection became something of a burden.

The copy-nin started trying to leave her out of anything that seemed even remotely dangerous which, as a ninja, pretty much meant everything. He had taken on a lone-wolf attitude, essentially accomplishing whole missions by himself and his medic partner began to resent him for it slightly. She was a competent kunoichi, or she wouldn't have made chuunin, and not being allowed to do her job had her reacting by doing the exact opposite of what he ordered occasionally. This only increased his fear that he wouldn't be able to protect her, which was another emotion he still struggled with and turned into anger. The possibility of an argument between the two friends escalated to the point that missions became endangered.

It was two years after Obito's death that everything came to a head. They had been given a mission where nothing was without risk and Kakashi had been made team leader with hesitance from the Yondaime. The jounin had insisted that he was capable, and the fact of the matter was that it was true. His completed-to-failed mission ratio was still excellent and his teams rarely came back with any major injuries. The deciding factor, however, was the undeniable truth that there was no one available who was better than the copy-nin at the time. Yet, when they reached their destination, he again gave Rin the task with the least amount of risk.

Maybe if they hadn't argued before leaving the village. Maybe if her mother hadn't confronted her about her choice of career again that morning. Maybe if it hadn't been that time of the month. Hell, maybe if everything had happened two days before, or the weather had been better, she wouldn't have stepped out of line. But it hadn't and she did and the resulting injury, not easily treated but possibly life threatening, was too much for her partner.

Kakashi snapped. He did a lot of damage to the enemy but with no regard to himself or anyone else, and it was only thanks to their third teammate that any of them got out alive. As it was the brown haired girl spent three weeks recovering and the copy-nin two months plus a mandatory psych evaluation ordered by the Hokage himself. He was deemed fit to return to duty by the time he was out of the hospital, but it was three more weeks before he could be considered for any serious missions and Rin was assigned to another, more permanent team long ago. She tried to visit him several times but after the first one, where he declared it safer if she stayed away from him, he refused to see her. Since then, their separate schedules kept them from even passing each other on the street too frequently. She had made another attempt around the third anniversary of Obito's death when they had not-surprisingly run into each other at the memorial stone, and she was more persistent that time, trying to get him to talk about what happened, but he pushed her away again with the same excuse and eventually her efforts fell by the wayside.

* * *

That had been several months ago, and today was the first time Rin had really talked to him since then. He was pretty sure that his resistance to her was only weakened because of recent events. Despite that, neither of them said a word for the first half of the trip to Ichiraku's. Kakashi hadn't actually asked if that was her intended destination but considering she really did hate ramen it was only reasonable to assume she meant it to be somewhat symbolic. Sitting at Sensei's favorite stand, eating his favorite food with his kid while she tried to have a meaningful conversation with what was left of their team...classic, emotional Rin.

The medic-nin followed by his side while he played with the infant. The blue-eyed boy hadn't gone back to sleep after his outburst and while Kakashi had been shifting the sling around to keep the weight off his ribcage, his hand brushed past the baby who had seized the opportunity to grab the jounin's pinky. He had tried pulling his hand away but, as the kid had shown before, he had a pretty strong grip and no desire to let go. The teen had resigned himself to waving his hand around pointlessly, which actually turned out to interest the boy.

"You two seem to be getting along well," Rin commented.

"Mmm. Something like that," was his response. The brown-haired girl was never really discouraged by his lack of enthusiasm, but she wasn't encouraged by it either. Silence reigned for another few steps.

"Things in the hospital are really crazy right now. Well… that's a bit obvious isn't it?" She gave a nervous laugh. "But we've managed to save a lot of the critical patients. Not everyone. But a lot of the people we didn't think would make it are fighting hard to survive. It's a little frustrating though. You have to take care of the patients who are in serious condition first, right? But at the same time the others want treatment too, and they keep trying to convince you that they need help. You have to send them away, even when you want to treat them. It makes things hard."

That was something to which Kakashi couldn't have responded even if he wanted to. Those were the kind of decisions you had to make as a medic or a ninja. Personally, the jounin thought the people who weren't about to die were morons. What did they expect after a large-scale attack? Shinobi healing and medics may have seemed like magic, but even they could only do so much. It was why he hadn't gone to the hospital right away when he knew his ribs were broken. As long as he didn't do anything that could endanger his lungs he'd be fine, and when things calmed down he would get them healed completely.

"Oh! I just remembered," Rin exclaimed. "I saw Gai-kun in a recovery room. He needed some minor surgery but he's fine now. I think he said something about healing up in a week or he'd run around the village 200 times."

"Gai is an idiot." The silver-haired ninja declared. "If he's not running around yelling about the springtime of his youth in three days, something really is wrong with him. Until that happens, don't worry about him." The ramen stand was in sight and it looked as if Ichiraku was handing out meals to workers who had taken a break from rebuilding, so Kakashi couldn't excuse himself on account of it being closed. _Wait. Gai? There was something about Gai that I had to take care of. Gai…Gai…_

"Ah! Gai!"

The medic-nin looked at him and jumped at the conversation that seemed to be taking place between them. "Something wrong?

"The green one-piece outfits. I forgot to throw them out. I have to remember that when I get back home." Rin gave him a puzzled look, apparently misunderstanding whose green outfits he was referring to. "Never mind. Let's just order." They greeted Ichiraku and his wife, who squealed over the arrival of new baby and brought her five year-old daughter out to meet them. Ayame was shy and hid behind her mother's skirt despite encouragement, so to spare the poor girl her father admonished his wife about ignoring the customers. The woman's enthusiasm brought up the question of the name of the baby again leaving Rin and Kakashi to begin brainstorming, with Kakashi having the final say.

"Takeshi."

"Are you serious? That's so…_common_. He needs a real name, a unique name. It's too bad he's not a girl. Then you could name him Sakura."

"How is _that_ original?"

"It's not, but at least its pretty. Takeshi is just plain."

"Okay, how about Aoi?"

"That one's obvious, too, Kakashi. You can't name a kid off the color of his eyes, even if they are really bright. Maybe Akira? It means 'bright', so you've got the same premise just not as apparent. Plus, it really fits if he turns out to have the same hair color as sensei."

"I don't know. Akira reminds me of that cocky bastard from the academy who thought he was a taijutsu master, or something. I don't think he even graduated."

"Umm…Haruki? Isamu? Kaito? Masaru? Naoki? Osamu?"

"They don't really sound good with his last name. Except maybe the last one. What does it mean?"

"Oh, that's right, I forgot about the last name. Uh I think it means 'order' or 'restraint' or something. Or maybe it's 'discipline'?"

"It doesn't sound like anything Sensei would think of anyway."

"Thank you for waiting," the ramen chef said as placed their bowls before them. Rin had actually ordered beef ramen, although Kakashi had a feeling it was more because she had been the one to suggest it than a sudden fondness for it. The jounin had freed his hand from the infant's grasp long ago, but he couldn't really eat over the kid without the risk of hot soup dripping on him, so both shinobi ended up moving their noodles around more than anything. The narutomaki bobbed up and down in the miso as Kakashi poked at it and he was quiet while racking his brains for more names.

"Sensei… his funeral," the Rin spoke up quietly, "Sandaime-sama says they're having his funeral in two days."

The abrupt change in topic had the copy-nin faltering and he didn't have a chance to respond before Rin had gone on.

"He's really dead, isn't he Kakashi? Sensei, he's really gone. I still…I still have a hard time…Did you see his eyes? Right before he…right before…it was like he knew he was going to die, but…I don't know…I didn't know how! I couldn't _do_ anything. I couldn't even _try._ He didn't have any wounds, there was no blood, he was just gone!" Tears started streaming down her face for the second time that day. "It was worse than Obito. At least Obito…Obito was still alive when we were with him. We talked to him before he was gone. But sensei…It's so pointless! What's the use of being a medic if I can't help my team? What's the point of learning how to save people who can't be saved?"

Kakashi sat stunned at this sudden revelation. "Rin…I'm such an _ass_." Kakashi had needed to push aside his sadness and anger at the Yondaime's death to take care of the baby. But of course Rin, the medic, the one who spent most of her time learning how to treat the people she cared about, of course she would have been affected by only being able to announce her mentor's death.

"_I need someone to talk to, and you're the only person who can really understand."_

Rin hadn't been trying to get him to open up. She had been looking for someone to support her, a shoulder to cry on, and he had tried to brush her off, push her away, he had _yelled_ at her.

"I'm sorry, Rin. I'm really sorry. God, I feel so _stupid_."

What should he say? What should he tell her? What _could_ he tell her that wasn't a repeat of everything she had just said?

"Kakashi, promise me. Promise me you won't do anything stupid anymore. Please, just don't…don't do anything that I can't fix. I can't…we're the last two. It's just us, and I don't want to lose you, too. I swear I'll be a friend, I'll be just a comrade to you if you promise not to get hurt like that. If you promise not to…not to die like that. _Promise._"

"_Take care…of Rin…"_

He couldn't. If he kept his promise to Obito, he couldn't promise Rin that he wouldn't do everything to save her. If he gave his promise to Rin, he couldn't guarantee his promise to Obito. But wasn't he already hurting Rin? Wasn't he already breaking his promise by avoiding her?

_This is a mess. What do I do? I don't know how to fix this. There aren't even any guidelines to follow. How do you reconcile what you feel and what you need to do? How, Obito?_

_Dad… what should I _do_?_

"I'm sorry, dears, I don't mean to interrupt, but I think the poor boy is getting restless," Ichiraku's wife intruded into his thoughts with her (slightly nosy) observation and then offered, "You might want to see what he wants before he gets too cranky and you can't calm him down."

"She's right," said Rin, quickly composing herself in the face of catastrophe and wiping away her tears. "He might be hungry. Do you have something to give him?"

"I _just_ gave him something to eat," Kakashi exclaimed. "He can't possibly be hungry again. I was going to save the bottle in the bag for lunch time, if we were out that long."

"You'd be surprised," the ramen chef spoke up from where he was stirring a pot in the back. "When Ayame was just born, my wife was so busy taking care of her sometimes I pretty much ran the place by myself. Kids eat a lot when they're that young."

The silver-haired teen sighed. "Crap. All right, Rin do you mind holding him? I—I don't want to drop him while I'm getting the stuff…" To late he realized that Rin could probably grab it for him but she had already moved to take the baby in her arms, and as she lifted him up she bumped her arm against the copy-nin's side.

"Ow! Damn it! _Ow_."

"Young man, you shouldn't swear around children," the woman behind the counter admonished in a way that brought the image of wooden spoons to mind.

"Kakashi," the medic-nin said hesitantly as she reached out one arm to push lightly on his injury, "tell me you aren't walking around with broken _ribs_."

"It's not a big deal. I was going to get it fixed today." He swatted her arm away and swung his backpack around to open it.

"It _is_ a big deal. You could have punctured a lung!"

"I said I'm fine. The hospital couldn't have taken me anyway, you said it yourself. Here," he shoved the bottle at her so he could put his bag back on. "It should be okay for him to drink right now. I think. They can drink cold milk, can't they?"

"I swear, men are such idiots," the brown-haired girl huffed.

"You said it missy," answered the ramen wife.

"Hey!"

"I'm starting to wonder if it's okay for you to take him. If you really can't handle it, I wouldn't mind. I'm sure my mom would love to help out as well." Rin tipped the formula bottle in the direction of the blue-eyed infant's mouth.

"You can't," Kakashi snapped a little, feeling suddenly worried at the prospect of having the kid taken from him for some reason. "You're needed at the hospital. You won't have the time. I'm capable of taking care of him." Rin stared at him a little before acquiescing with a secretive smile and tried to get the baby to drink some more. He would put his lips around the nipple as if he were about to drink, sometimes taking a sip or two, but then turn his face away and scrunch it up.

When his whimpers began turning into tears and he started to squirm in frustration, she turned back to the main guardian, who had started to eat some of his own meal. "He doesn't seem to want this. Does he need a change?"

The jounin turned to her, "No. I'd be able to tell, trust me." He tapped the side of his nose. "Maybe we should try that pacifier thing, I haven't use—wait. Did you say change?"

"Uh…yeah?"

Kakashi groaned. "Not now. This is a really bad time you stupid bastard," he hissed before looking around to make sure there were no shinobi around who would recognize what he was about to do. When the coast seemed clear, he reached for the boy and began to peel the clothing away to get to his stomach. Sure enough a bright orange swirl was apparent on the baby's torso.

"What are you doing?!" Rin whispered as she moved to shield the mark from civilian view. "You should wait to do this until you're somewhere safe. Not out in the open. How are you going to keep it a secret otherwise?"

"I'm not going to wait," he whispered back. "You have no idea what we went through yesterday before we figured this out. He shouldn't have to suffer through it again." The copy-nin pressed his hand against the spiral and gave a quick burst. His control was better this time and no red mark was left behind as the seal faded. "I already checked for other ninja in the area, and most civilians wouldn't know the difference if we lied to them. It worked on Yoshino-san."

"Yoshino-san?" asked the med-nin in what she hoped was a casual voice. The silver-haired teen had mention the person before, but Rin had never heard of her.

Kakashi rolled his eyes, "Don't get jealous. She's just the mother from the north district who helped me out. She's the only other person who's seen it." The two of them quickly set about fixing the infant's outfit, and Rin tried with the bottle again to cover up the fact that anything had happened. The kid wasn't really interested in it, but his whimpering and kicking had stopped, so the teenage girl simply held him while Kakashi went back to finishing his ramen.

"Everything turn out okay?" asked Ichiraku with a smile a few seconds later. The copy-nin wondered if the chef had taken note of their unusual behavior, but both he and his wife had been engaged in a lively conversation with some new customers. It was most likely the man was simply being friendly.

"Yep. Problem solved."

"Good to hear. Well then, finish enjoying your meal. I don't want to think my cooking is unappreciated, eh?" he gave a hearty laugh and walked back to his stove.

Kakashi took another bite and pushed the narutomaki around in his bowl as he chewed. This was going to be a much bigger problem than he had originally thought. The seal was strong enough to cover the weak chakra movements of the fox right now, so there was no way to predict when something was about to happen and the baby's cries were no more distinctive than when he had a normal problem. The jounin would have to figure out a system of discretion if he were to keep this under wraps. As he thought, the narutomaki began to twirl around in his bowl when he pushed it, the swirl pattern spinning around and around. He stared, letting the optical illusion draw him in.

_Twisting, turning, twirling, swirling, spiraling…spiraling? Spiral…the seal…goes with his last name…something Sensei would approve of, so it has to be original…ramen is—was his favorite dish…Rasen…no…narutomaki…_

"Naru…to?"

"What?" asked Rin, looking up from playing peek-a-boo with the boy.

"The name…Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto."

The medic-nin frowned a little, "Are you sure?"

"It's original," Kakashi defended his choice, "and it fits. It meets all of the criteria."

Rin shrugged, "Well, it is your choice." She tickled the boy on the stomach. "Uzumaki Naruto, huh? You know, it kinda grows on you. I like it."

* * *

**A/N:** As a reminder, Please don't tell me how this doesn't match Kakashi's background, or give me spoilers as to what his background really is. Any other critisim about anything revealed before the first Sai/rescue Sasuke arc is fair game, and I welcome it.

To head off the other type of review I will undoubtly get:  
For those of you who don't like Rin/Kakashi → I'm sorry for the annoying apparance of it. If you look at my headings you will see, however, that this is a No-Pairings story. I just needed someone like Rin for the plot and there is no denying that they were teammates and that she had feelings for him, so there is bound to be some history.  
For those of you who do like Rin/Kakashi→ I'm sorry if you were misled. If you look at my headings you will see, however, that this is a No-Pairings story. I just needed someone like Rin for the plot and there is no denying that they were teammates and that she had feelings for him, so there is bound to be some history

Lastly, The next chapter may come out a little later than two weeks from now. Finals are coming up in three weeks and I really need to start studying, plus I have a paper due as my English final, so FYE will probably be pushed down on my things-to-do list. I promise to continue, I'm having a lot of fun writing this, plus the next chapter is the beginning of where I _really_ wanted to be with this story.

**Please review, ask questions, make criticism, whatever. **Just let me know you're out there!


	4. Warning

**Rating:** PG

**Pairings:** None

**A/N:** I'm sorry this took so long guys. I meant to have it out last week, but finals got in the way, and the chapter turned out to be longer than I thought it would. I ended up splitting it into two chapters that are a bit shorter, but I'm posting them both today.

**Disclaimer: **No matter how hard I wish, my dream of owning the Naruto franchise never comes true...

**Summary/ Snippet:**"Are we ready to go? I think we've got everything, don't you?" he asked the blue-eyed boy in his arms. Naruto happily babbled something unintelligible in return as he always did and Kakashi opened the door.

* * *

Fire in Your Eyes

by Psychick

Chapter 4: Warning

_He never described it as "dark" anymore. It was more "black" than dark; rather it was more of a vacuum where color could not exist in the background, but there was no word to describe the color of a vacuum. It wasn't as if he couldn't see. If he waved his hand in front of his face it was perfectly visible, although his skin seemed dull and lifeless. Strange how he was the one living, yet he always felt less alive in this place._

"_Oh. You're here."_

_He turned around. This was the part he hated. He never knew who exactly he was going to meet, although sometimes he ventured a guess based on what had happened that day. It never really mattered though, because none of them were exactly pleasant. This time it was the thirteen-year-old boy sitting in mid-air, legs bent, ankles crossed and arms wrapped around his knees. His left eyelid was closed—sunken in—and it was the only side of him that was visible. _

"_It's you this time?"_

"_Don't sound so annoyed. You'd think you'd be at least a little happy to see me."_

"_You're dead."_

"_And you're alive."_

_"...I'm sorry."_

"_Wait, this is about blame? Sorry, I thought we were just stating facts. In that case, you totally cheated during that training session two years ago. Sensei wasn't paying attention, but I know you moved. I just couldn't prove it."_

_The dead boy always talked as if time hadn't passed at all in the waking world. He had stopped correcting him after the third year of nightmares. _

"_What do you want?"_

_A drop of blood that was always flowing down the thirteen-year-old's right hand fell and suddenly the scenery expanded from an unexplainable ripple it caused. Instead of mid-air, the boy was sitting on an obsidian rock that acted as his tombstone, a string of kanji running endlessly down it. Across from his perch were three wooden posts and beyond it a vast training field surrounded by trees. Everything, including the dead boy, seemed really vibrant and colorful, while his own image was still tinted with grey._

_The boy smiled. "Doesn't it bring back memories?"_

_It did. Too many. And every time he went over them he could pinpoint everything he should have done differently, every mistake he made, every stupid word that he wished he could take back. He only rarely came to train here when he really wanted to punish himself in a way no one else could._

_The brown-haired boy sighed and rested his head on his knees. "If I didn't know you were a genius ninja, I'd wonder how you ever got anywhere in life. You've got one good eye and one supremely awesome eye, if I do say so myself, but you still can't see the things you _should_ be looking at."_

_A hand went up to the headband over the left side of his face. It wasn't that he was ashamed of it. He treasured that eye. But the stares from people who knew nothing about him or its history still made him self-conscious. He didn't want questions. He didn't want to relive those painful memories._

"_I'm trying. It's not as easy as it looks. I have to protect her from myself now, too. I've told you that."_

_The head came up, although it didn't turn to face him. "I know. You were never a crybaby like me." He winced. "You're doing your best to change and that's what counts. But you're still looking at all the wrong things."_

"_I don't understand."_

"_I know that, too. But you will. Soon. If things work out. That's why I'm here."_

"_What?"_

"_You have to leave, Kakashi. You have to go back."_

"_You mean wake up? I've tried. I can't do it until you're done talking."_

"_Not the dream." The dead boy lifted his left arm to point past the wooden posts. "You have to go back. You can't stay here. Hurry. There isn't much time; he might not be saved if you don't get him out. You have to go back."_

"_Who are you taking about? Obito? I don't get it, who might not be saved?"_

_Suddenly the boy stepped down from the stone seat and moved toward him. His right side was a mess, arm mostly torn off and barely attached by a flap of skin, bones sticking out everywhere, face nearly flattened. His right leg dragged behind him as he lurched forward and blood drenched the grass, as it seemed to gush out of every part of his body. "_Hurry_, Kakashi! There isn't much time! You can't stay here, you can't be late! Sensei is counting on you!" The right arm that wasn't connected enough to be able to respond reached for him as he took a step back, but the fingers that were too smashed to move grasped the front of his vest before he could get away._

"_Are you listening? You have to leave! Kakashi, _GO!"

* * *

"Naruto! What did you do with your sippy-cup yesterday? I've looked all over this house and I can't find it." Kakashi stood in the doorway of the living room, hands running through his hair in frustration and irritation. They were late—_again_—and while the eighteen-year-old would have gladly sacrificed the search for the small container to promptness, Naruto had a habit of throwing a small tantrum when he was told he couldn't carry it around. Unfortunately he also had a habit of leaving it in the oddest places when he had finished with it, and Kakashi had frequently needed to buy a new one when it seemed to have been swallowed up by the universe. The current sippy-cup was green and blue with smiling orange sea stars and happy yellow fish swimming around, but no less visible for it.

Naruto, who was playing with blocks on the floor and had his back towards the doorway, turned his head at the sound of his name and smiled.

"Ka!"

The silver-haired teen sighed before walking over to the boy and kneeled down to his level. Sometimes, when all else failed, Naruto could find his favorite piece of glassware better than any ninja dog if asked. It was probably quicker than Kakashi searching for it himself, but his pride still refused to allow him to admit that a lifetime of ninja training left him inferior to a near-one-and-a-half year old.

"Hey, Naruto—" The blond-haired boy held up one of his blocks as an offering to his guardian. Kakashi took it absentmindedly and continued. "Can you help me find your juice cup?"

The boy's eyes lit up at the mention of juice and he began to quickly crawl through the doorway to the kitchen, towards the back of the house. As the jounin had already searched the room several times already, he was about to give the cup up as a lost cause when Naruto pulled himself up using a chair and carefully toddled over to the window that looked out to the backyard. He wasn't tall enough to see over the windowsill so Kakashi, still hopeful that he wouldn't have to spend another five bucks on something that wouldn't last a month, picked the kid up.

Naruto pointed out the window to the old tree stump that stood in the middle of the yard, leftover from the tree that had collapsed three years ago in a bad storm. "Cup!" he exclaimed before turning to look at Kakashi and repeating, "Cup!" Sure enough, sitting on top of the log was the little green and blue devil, mocking the jounin in all its obvious glory. The only thing missing from the scene was a beam of sunlight shooting down to frame the damn thing.

He sighed and walked back into the living room to place his charge back among the mess of toys that had surrounded him. "You have to stop leaving your things in the backyard when we play out there. Stay here, I'll be right back." The silver-haired teen ran out the only door into and out of the house in the front and went around the back to grab the all-important item. He shook it in disgust as it was still wet from the slight shower they had gotten the night before and quickly ran back to the house so he could wash it, dry it, and fill it with Naruto's favorite beverage, orange juice.

Kakashi placed it in the bag with the rest of Naruto's things, then spent the next ten minutes trying to wrangle the blond into a jacket and get some sandals on him. Finally, they were ready to leave. The jounin swung the bag over his shoulders with practiced ease, lifted the blond one-year-old up effortlessly and headed for the door. With luck and a little haste they could make it within half an hour of the original appointed time.

"Are we ready to go? I think we've got everything, don't you?" he asked the blue-eyed boy in his arms. Naruto happily babbled something unintelligible in return as he always did and Kakashi opened the door.

"YOSH! Kakashi, my ETERNAL RIVAL! Today is the day to show the SPRING TIME of OUR YOUTH! HURRY! We must TRAIN AGAINST EACH OTHER to INCREASE OUR YOUTHFULLNESS! This time I will DEFEAT you! If I do not, then the PUNISHMENT will be FIVE-HUNDRED PUSH-UPS with ONE FINGER! COME!"

The speaker, or rather the shouter, stood in the middle of the path that led up to the copy-nin's house holding a strange pose as if ready for a camera at any moment. His hair was in the shape of a bowl cut unlike any other and his teeth, which were shown off through an enormous grin, sparkled against the sun light.

"Gai," Kakashi sighed, an occurrence that had already happened far too frequently this morning. Maito Gai had an uncanny habit of appearing just when he least expected it, or least wanted it for that matter, and announcing their "rivalry" in volumes inappropriate for _any_ time of day, let alone morning. It wasn't that he hated the man's presence, or that he felt the other shinobi was an incompetent moron. The over-enthusiastic teen's jounin vest was proof enough of that had Kakashi not experienced it through years of spontaneous competition and training, and Gai could actually be sensible in the field. It was more the fact that their personalities clashed. Where as Gai put his whole heart into being the best at everything taijutsu with a little flamboyance, Kakashi was all about efficiency and composure with more focus on his ninjutsu, thanks to the implanted Sharingan. This meant that there was only a few hours time of leeway that the copy-nin could put up with the fuzzy-eye browed man before it quickly dissolved into annoyance.

Even now Gai's sudden appearance was testing Kakashi's last nerve, as it was the latest occurrence in a string of bad incidents that morning. Naruto, however, had no such burdens and gave off a high-pitched laugh at the older man's antics.

"I'm glad somebody appreciates your theatrics," Kakashi grumbled. "Weren't we supposed to meet at the training field?"

Gai stepped out of his ridiculous pose, only to strike a new one with an outstretched thumbs-up in his rival's direction. "Once again, Kakashi, your hip ability to stay calm despite your excitement is _overwhelming_! I must work harder to match this _amazing_ ability!" He stepped closer, still keeping his thumbs-up sign although he held his arm closer to his body, and leaned down to come face to face with the young blond in the copy-nin's arms. "Hello, little one! You, too, must show the Springtime of your Youth along with us! Are you ready?" Naruto laughed even harder, leaning his weight back as he did so that Kakashi had to work to make sure the boy didn't suddenly slide out of his arms. When the blue-eyed child was done with that he suddenly reached forward to pull on Gai's hair.

As the younger jounin untangled his charge's grasp he said pointedly, "None of that answers my question."

Gai pulled back to a safer distance and both he and Kakashi started walking forward towards their destination as he answered. "There was a small mix-up in the scheduling. One of the genin teams was somehow signed up at the same time as us for field two. Since you didn't show up on time it was pointless to try and keep our slot, so I relinquished it to them."

_Wonderful,_ the silver-haired teen thought, _another issue to deal with. Should I have even bothered getting up this morning?_ Out loud he said, "Alright. We'll just have to see if another field is open for us, or get permission to train outside the training grounds if we need to. That might take awhile, though. How much time do you have?"

"Plenty," Gai responded. "I have an A rank that starts tomorrow, so there is again, nothing pressing until then." He struck his Nice Gai Pose although Kakashi ignored him and kept walking. "Today I will devote myself to improving my technique against my Eternal Rival!"

"If you have an A rank maybe you should be training with your team in preparation." The copy-nin called back.

"Perhaps." The older jounin shrugged and ran to catch up with his younger comrade. "But we all know each other well, and plus there would be no one for you to work with. It's not as if there are many left who can fight on an equal level with you, even as young as we are."

"That's true," agreed Kakashi, ever confident in his abilities, and then a companionable semi-silence fell over the two. Gai was never one to stay quiet or still for long, but he knew when conversation with the silver-haired jounin was futile and so he took to humming and basic exercises like walking on his hands, backwards.

Kakashi, on the other hand was lost in thought. Ever since that dream the night before nothing had gone right, down to the little, tiny, pointless things. Normally it wouldn't have registered as more than an annoyance on his part, but the dream was making him irritable and edgy. It had been a lot clearer and more vivid than any of the normal nightmares and seemingly more random too, but he had experienced _random_ dreams before and none of them had seemed quite as purposeful as this one had. The problem was, now that he was awake and had been focused on getting breakfast for himself and Naruto, who invariably got more food on the floor and walls than he did in his stomach, he couldn't really remember what the dream had been telling him. The copy-nin felt as if maybe someone had been in danger. Could he have—

Suddenly Kakashi's world went dark. It took a moment to realize what had happened, but then he pushed the right side of his hitai-ate back up and turned to the little boy in his arms. "Sorry kid," he apologized. "I haven't been paying much attention to you, have I?" Naruto's response was to try and reach for the headband again to pull it down, which resulted in a small battle between the teen and the boy to see who could exert their will over the blue cloth, which devolved into a tickling session that even had Kakashi smiling under his mask.

Kakashi wasn't sure when Naruto had developed an affinity for playing with his hitai-ate, only that it had started out with attempts to push it _up_ and reveal the jounin's Sharingan. The silver-haired teen had wondered if it wasn't an endeavor to make his face symmetrical as, at the time, the blue-eyed boy had played with most of his toys by lining them up some what neatly, or if Naruto just liked the way the red eye looked. In any case, the copy-nin still hadn't been eager to reveal the borrowed eye and somehow managed to convey that this was not something he approved of to the blond, but it also didn't stop the kid as he turned his attention to the other side of Kakashi's face and began to cover the copy-nin's bare eye. This wasn't nearly as big a crime in the jounin's book, and it amused Naruto enough that it had turned into a game to see if the toddler could get past his guardian's defenses. Then, by accident he had discovered that it was also a great attention-getting device as it caused Kakashi to stop whatever he was doing due to a lack of vision.

Gai soon joined in on their mock-battle in his own enthusiastic way as no one who knew the young blond seemed able to resist his charms for long. At one point Naruto reached his hands out to the older jounin and ended up in his arms, though Kakashi still kept a close eye on the two. Naruto was still prone to Kyuubi attacks and Gai wasn't in on the secret; if he found out, the copy-nin wasn't sure that even the taijutsu master wouldn't try for some type of revenge.

"He's getting big," Gai commented once they had settled down a little. "You will have to enroll him in the academy soon."

"He's only one and a half. Even _I_ wasn't that young when I started out."

"Four years old is not as far off as you might think, Kakashi. I think he will turn out to be an excellent ninja as well. Maybe even become a taijutsu specialist! I could become his sensei and you and I would train him to be the strongest fighter in all of Konoha! Youthfulness is such a wonderful thing! Naruto, my new student, you must work hard to achieve greatness and I, your hip sensei, will encourage you all the way! Isn't that right, my rival!"

Kakashi had sudden images of a blond bowl cut with a hideously clashing green jump suit and shivered with the horror of it. He had to restrain himself from snatching the boy out of Gai's hands, instead settling for a simple, "HELL no! Besides, if he's like his father, he won't have the body for taijutsu. He'll probably be a ninjutsu master, if anything. Now hand him back over, he's starting to squirm." Gai, who had just about as much clue as to what a baby needed as Kakashi had when Naruto had first arrived at his house, luckily handed the boy over without much question.

"Ugh," the copy-nin groaned as he took him back, "You _are_ getting big. Whatever happened to the little bundle I first met?" Naruto didn't answer of course, but his normally cheerful expression had become somewhat somber as he continued to move around in apparent discomfort. Soon he began to suck his thumb, grip the front of his shirt in the other hand, and lay his head on Kakashi's shoulder.

XXXXXX

Not much had happened in the year and four months that passed after Naruto received his name. The Yondaime Hokage's funeral was held two days later as Rin has explained. It didn't rain, or anything so cliché, but white clouds floated across a pale blue sky and passed over the sun casting a shadow on the large crowd that attended. Kakashi had stood beside Rin to offer a shoulder, but true to her shinobi teachings the medic-nin had given her sensei a respectable send-off with no tears. In the end he had needed to leave early anyway because the Kyuubi acted up during the middle of the service and the copy-nin wasn't so naïve as to think he could hide the seal in a crowd of elite Konoha ninja.

As his original assignment was to protect Naruto, Kakashi spent most—if not all—of his time taking care of the boy. The day-to-day tasks of baby care became routine with much help from Yoshino-san who, it turned out, did _not_ know everything and was often learning alongside him. After about two months he managed to create a daily schedule that involved some free time and turned his attention to his quickly fading shinobi abilities.

During one of Naruto's several naps of the day Kakashi had tested his body's limits. His chakra control had actually improved slightly from using the short, small burst to suppress the demon, but his taijutsu was abysmal. It wasn't that his form had dissolved, but rather that after only an hour of practice his breath came up short and his speed was only at the level of an experienced chuunin. He was slightly horrified with this discovery and spent the next day trying to convince the Hokage why he needed someone else to watch Naruto for a few weeks while he trained his body back up to an optimal level.

In the end, Sandaime refused the silver-haired shinobi's demand, but instead suggested that he take an hour or two every day in which someone else would watch over the boy while Kakashi enhanced his skills. Both men were reluctant to leave the blonde infant in the hands of anyone else, but it was obvious that if they didn't do _something_, take some small risk, the copy-nin wouldn't be fit to keep the position of protection either. Kakashi relented asking that, in addition to an ANBU guard, Naruto be put under the care of Nara Yoshino-san if she would agree to it. He reasoned that it was easier than having to 'train' an ANBU in all the quirks and habits of the boy when there was someone who was already familiar with them.

He had already had to explain to the woman that the "protective" seal was "more permanent than he had first thought," and that it would take elaborate and complicated measures to remove it which would be potentially harmful to Naruto. It was the best excuse he could come up with, but he had gotten to know Yoshino-san well enough to realize that she was an incredibly intelligent woman and that his fabrication wouldn't stand up to her close scrutiny. Sure enough, she eventually called him on his bluff but went on to admit that, however uneasy she was with it, the Hokage was obviously involved and giving his approval. Yoshino-san also admitted to recognizing that it was probably for her own protection that she didn't know the truth and promised not to pry into it, even going so far as to reluctantly agree never to mention it to Shikaku when Kakashi pushed her to.

By the time the baby-sitting ordeal was being hashed out the Kyuubi had begun to settle to the point that it only reared its head several times a week, as opposed to several times every day. Over the months they had decreased even more so that they only experienced three or four a week. The attacks were far enough apart that the jounin now very rarely returned to the Nara household to find a crying baby awaiting him. Sandaime-sama had hypothesized that Kyuubi wasn't getting weaker, unfortunately, just that it had begun to resign itself to its fate. Kakashi secretly hoped that it would one day resign itself to the point of extinction, however unreasonable that was.

XXXXX

Speaking of the Kyuubi, it seemed as if he had decided to make his presence known again. Naruto was still pretty quiet and his thumb sucking was always a good indicator that he was uncomfortable or upset, but more than that he was really starting to tug at his shirt. This was the biggest sign that something was wrong. The blond had been conditioned not to reveal his stomach unless told, but pulling on his shirt meant that he was simply waiting for the signal.

"Hey Gai, would you mind going on ahead and letting Yoshino-san know that I'm on the way?" Kakashi asked, trying to get rid of the fuzzy-eye browed man. "I'd do it myself, but running with Naruto is a little awkward. I just don't want her thinking I've forgotten—"

"Leave it to me! I will carry everything and still BEAT my RECORD TIME! If not, I must do 400—no, 500 laps with weights around the village!"

"No, that's alright," he assured the older jounin, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice. This was where the taijutsu ninja's exuberance became a problem. "Just go ahead, is all. Please," he added trying to be polite.

The green clad shinobi faltered with a disappointed look on his face. "Are you sure? Perhaps we could turn it into a contest—"

"_No_," was the firm reply. "Look, this is really important. If nobody goes ahead the ANBU guard is going to get worried. It'll be a big problem if a fuss is raised because we weren't on time. The Hokage will _not_ be happy."

"Yes. That would not be a good thing," Gai agreed, but instead of running forward he stopped walking altogether. "Kakashi," he called when the silver-haired teen didn't stop.

He turned with some exasperation. Naruto was starting to burrow his head in his shoulder, meaning the Kyuubi was getting pushy and if Gai didn't leave soon he would start crying. "What is it?"

"You are hiding something, aren't you?"

Damn it. Now was _not_ the time for this conversation. "Look Gai—"

"Is it concerning Naruto?" the taijutsuist asked.

He paused slightly. "I can't answer that," Kakashi told him, trying to head everything off and get the older jounin out of there.

"But it _is_ on the orders of the Hokage, correct? You aren't keeping this because of…you know when I call us 'rivals' it's…" He trailed off.

Was _that_ what this was about? Did Gai really think that he would keep a simple secret this thoroughly because of a self-proclaimed _rivalry_? Sure he wasn't exactly ready to spill his guts to the other man, but the fuzzy-eye browed jounin was also the closest thing Kakashi had to a friend for a long while, despite his annoying tendancies. Still, if he admitted that, it would definitely reveal that there was something _very_ important to hide. It was already difficult enough to keep things quiet, and the Hokage had begun to confide to the copy-nin that he wasn't sure how much longer it would stay a secret.

"If it will get you to stop asking questions I'll tell you this," he offered. "There are things I won't tell even Yoshino-san right now. The Hokage wants to give Naruto a chance at a normal childhood. I'm just doing the best I can." That was all the silver-haired teen could say and it would be up to Gai to form his own conclusions.

Fortunately it seemed to be an acceptable answer and with a nod Gai took off. With relief, Kakashi stepped off of the path and did a quick routine visual sweep of the area to make sure they were truly alone. Seeing no one else around he knelt down and sat Naruto on the ground, since it was easier than juggling the boy in his arms while helping him.

"Sorry for the wait kiddo," he apologized. "Go ahead, shirt up!" Used to the routine by now, the little blond toddler took the hem of his shirt and lifted it up until it was covering his face. Sure enough the seal had shown itself again, although it was dull compared to it's original color, no longer violent red-orange but instead a kind of ember glow. The copy-nin made quick work of it and then coaxed Naruto to bring the shirt back down.

"All done," Kakashi reassured the boy. "What do you say we actually make it all the way to Shikamaru-kun's this time?" Naruto's only response was to lift his arms for his guardian to pick him up and laid his head quietly on the teen's shoulder. _Just one more reason to loathe the Kyuubi,_ thought the jounin. Normally Naruto was a very happy kid, constantly laughing and babbling even when not half of it was anything intelligible. The only time he really became silent was when he felt the Kyuubi chakra, as if he knew the danger that lurked beneath his own skin. He would perk up eventually, but until then his eerie silence would grate on Kakashi.

The rest of their trip was unhindered and they arrived at the Nara household to find a slightly annoyed ANBU ready to greet them. The man gave a short lecture on promptness that the jounin felt was vaguely reminiscent of his past lectures to Obito. Since Naruto had arrived at his house Kakashi had received several like them and had at first attempted to explain or at least apologize for his lateness but had eventually given up when he realized that most ninja were about as understanding as he had been at thirteen. Now he politely stood and waited for the ANBU to finish, agreed with the man to the guard's surprise, and walked past him into Yoshino-san's home.

The scene that presented itself was not entirely surprising. Gai seemed to love children, despite the fact that he had no idea how to raise one and his face often scared a few of them, so Kakashi wasn't startled to find the older jounin trying to entertain a nearly two-year-old Shikamaru in his own loud way. The only problem with this was that _nothing_ ever seemed to faze the black-haired toddler. In fact, just as Gai was reaching the height of his performance, Shikamaru-kun gave a big yawn.

Yoshino smiled and rolled her eyes at her son just in time to notice Kakashi's entrance. "Oh, good, you're here! Right on time," she called out from the kitchen where she was washing dishes.

He raised an eyebrow. "On time? I thought we were twenty minutes late."

The black-haired woman shook her head and smiled again. "You're always, remarkably, punctually late. I've started planning my day around the idea that you'll show up twenty minutes later than you say."

The silver-haired jounin only 'hmmed' at the implication.

Yoshino jerked her thumb in the direction of the living room that could be seen through the opening in the wall of the kitchen. "Shika-chan is in the living room if you want to set Naruto down in there. I imagine you'll need to pull Gai-san away as well." She frowned suddenly. "Is he alright?"

"Who, Gai? Believe it or not, he's been acting pretty sane lately…"

Another eye-roll, but this time in exasperation. "I _mean_ Naruto. He doesn't look like he's feeling very well."

The silver-haired jounin waved her concern off as he walked into the living room to put Naruto down. "He'll be fine," he reassured the mother. "Just let him and Shikamaru-kun play together for a bit."

"About that, I was wondering if it would be okay with you if I took them to the park." Yoshino suggested. "I think they've been feeling cooped up lately. And Shikaku said he would try to come home for lunch if he got out of that big meeting they were calling everyone for today, so you two are welcome to join us after your training."

"Meeting?" Gai questioned. "I haven't heard anything about that. Do you know what it's about, Nara-san?"

"Not really. Shikaku didn't say much, although I don't think it was called directly by the Hokage. Maybe a messenger of his?"

Kakashi was starting to get a bad feeling, although he wasn't quite sure why. He hadn't heard anything about a meeting either, but it was possible that he had missed the hawk that usually signaled large gatherings.

An image of Obito's bloody dream corpse suddenly flashed through his head and he clenched his fists in reflex.

"Don't go to the park."

The adults in the room turned to look at the copy-nin, giving him wondering looks at his forceful statement. It had come out more as a command than a refusal, but he didn't take it back.

"Yoshino-san, don't go to the park. Not today. Maybe some other time, or even after I get back but… Just…just stay home. Just don't go out." He was about to add 'please', but a wash of fear overtook him and the 'please' became, "_Promise me_."

Yoshino raised her eyebrow at this. Kakashi, who was normally very reserved, now had worry displayed all over his face and in his body language. Even Gai looked vaguely troubled at the younger man's reaction, but he didn't contradict his comrade. The black-haired mother couldn't see why a meeting would set off warning signals in these two jounin, but she had gotten to know the copy-nin and had heard enough about his field sense from rumors Shikaku had gathered that she trusted his judgment. That being said, she filed this in her brain under "Suspicious Actions of the Hatake Family" to be wondered about in detail later.

"Alright, I promise," she agreed although she wondered if that was such a good idea as she remembered the last promise she had made to the silver-haired teen about keeping secrets from Shikaku. Not for the first time, she thought that perhaps she should back out of the agreement to take care of the young Naruto while she still could, but the boy was such a joy to be around that she was loathe to give it up. Besides, how dark of a secret could a one-year-old be hiding? "I suppose I'll just have to get creative when they start feeling cooped up."

Kakashi didn't answer, instead turning away to his young charge. The blue-eyed boy was sucking his thumb again and the jounin gently tugged the offending hand out of his mouth. Standing the kid on his feet so as to be on the same level with him, Kakashi tried to keep the worry out of his voice as he said, "You be good while I'm gone, okay? Stay inside, don't run around too much. I'll just be gone for a little while."

Naruto, who couldn't possibly understand what he had been told, tilted his head slightly at the strange tone of voice he was hearing. No one had ever really spoken to him like that before, but it didn't feel good and he wanted to start on his thumb as soon as he got it back. That always made him feel a little better. Not knowing what else to do until it was released, he pointed over at his friend and announced loudly, "Shi."

Kakashi sighed and put a hand on Naruto's blond head as he stood, knowing that anything he said was more likely to reassure himself than it would the kid. "Come on Gai, let's go. If we don't hurry we'll never get a spot." He let the boy go, the one-year-old's thumb going straight to his mouth as he toddled over to Shikamaru-kun to bother the older boy.

The two jounin walked to the door, Gai giving off a last 'nice to see you again' to Yoshino-san as he stepped out. Kakashi looked back one last time to see that Naruto hadn't moved from his original position but the black-haired mother tried to reassure him with a smile and said, "Everything will be fine. Worse comes to worse, we have an ANBU guard," as she closed the door. To the copy-nin it seemed to give off an ominous _click_ as he replied, "Yeah," and walked away.

* * *

A/N: I just want to thank everybody for all the positive reviews I've been getting. There are over fifty which is pretty much more than I ever imagined I would get, plus it really helped me to keep pushing myself when I was really struggling with parts of the story and was tempted to just rewrite the whole chapter, which really would have set me back a lot. Just wanted to let you guys know that it's really appreciated so click that little blue button, even if it's just one line, and I'll keep working hard at it!


	5. Revealed

**Rating:** PG-13 for a one or two heavy swear words

**Pairings:** None

**A/N:** Just a heads up. I love the Japanese language and I know that a lot of characters have their own catch phrases like Naruto's "dattebayo" and Shikamaru's "Mendokuse" so I'm always loathe to take them out. At the same time, I know just how annoying it can be when authors start spouting out random Japanese phrases that I have no way of knowing, especially if I've just joined the fandom. With this in mind (and the fact that I have no idea how little kids talk in Japan) I kept most phrases in English so that everyone can understand them, with the exception of a few honorifics, and some titles and words in later chapters. I don't think there are any in this chapter, but if I ever use a Japanese word that has an unclear meaning from the context, let me know and I'll try and rectify that.

**Disclaimer: **(Naruto sits at a desk staring at a piece of paper with intense concentration.)

PC: Hey Naruto, what are you doing.

Naruto: Writing a letter to Kishimoto-sensei. I don't want him in charge of our life anymore. I mean, seriously, Sasuke and Orochimaru?! What the hell?

(Rabid fangirls and boys suddenly appear in the shadows with writing and drawing utensils of all kinds in their hands and evil grins on their faces

PC: (with a grin of her own) Is that so? Well if you're looking for his replacement I think there might be someone around here with a few good ideas...

Naruto: (A shiver runs down his spine and after a pause he begins to write) Dear Kishimoto-sensei,

PLEASE DON'T LEAVE US!

**Summary/Snippet:** About an hour after Kakashi and Gai had left, Yoshino was beginning to wonder why she had ever questioned Naruto's well-being.

* * *

Fire in Your Eyes

by Psychick

Chapter 5: Revealed

"You have _got_ to be kidding me."

Gai looked over at his silver-haired comrade standing next to him as they surveyed the last training field that had been available. "We could try requesting approval for going outside the grounds," he suggested. They stood before a field that seemed no different from any other, so to speak, yet the taijutsu ninja knew from previous conversations about where they would be sparring that this was the field Kakashi had first trained on with his former team. He also knew that the copy-nin avoided it like the plague. Unfortunately, with such short notice, it was a miracle that they had landed any type of field at all.

There was a moment where the younger jounin was tempted to turn around and admit defeat. The gods were obviously amusing themselves with his pain and there seemed to be no stopping them today. Attempting to be optimistic in thinking that anything would go right was a pointless endeavor. However, it was exactly for this reason that he stood his ground. The earlier talk with Yoshino-san had sent a creeping feeling through his body that something dangerous was stirring in the village and Kakashi was sure that now more than ever he needed to be prepared.

"Let's go," he said, stepping out on the field. Gai followed him to the middle of the grounds and they spent a few minutes warming up. Normally they would have gradually done so throughout their fight instead of beforehand, but between Gai's A rank the next day and Kakashi's sense of danger flaring up neither felt they could afford to injure themselves through insufficient preparation and become incapacitated.

Suddenly, without any visible signal, both men stood facing each other in stances that would give anyone with an untrained eye the impression that their guard was down. To each of the jounin, however, it was apparent that the other fighter was covering all his weak points and any openings were likely the beginnings of a trap.

"What's this?" questioned Kakashi, friendly sarcasm laced through his voice. "No shouting, no posing? Gai, are you actually taking this seriously for once?"

"Ha!" Gai smirked as he picked up the banter, "Make no mistake, my rival. All of our battles are serious matters. However, you are correct in your observation that today is doubly so, for I have decided that our fight here shall be a contest! The score is 20 to 20! My decisive win will show that I am indeed the stronger man! Should I fail to do so, however, I will DOUBLE my training as punishment!"

"Hmph," came the reply. Truth be told, Kakashi had no clue what were the requirements for declaring that a sparring session would be a 'contest' and so Gai had been the one to initiate all forty of them. "I knew you couldn't stay quiet for long."

"But, Kakashi, I see that you, too, have yet to take me seriously. Aren't you going to use your Sharingan?"

It was meant to be something of a joke, a reference to their younger days. Back when the Sharingan was still new and the silver-haired boy's arrogance in his own abilities was strong enough that Gai hadn't even registered on his radar, the green jumpsuit-clad chuunin had challenged him to a match. It was the first of many contests to come and when Kakashi had finally accepted that Gai was a worthy opponent during their fight, he had tried using the Sharingan. Needless to say, he was rather surprised to find that it was useless against the other boy's mastery of taijutsu alone. It was the only time Gai had ever been ahead in wins, as Kakashi's two successive victories afterward kept him in the lead.

"Childish tricks like that won't work on me any more," was the copy-nin's serious reply, and silence fell between the two as they both anticipated the other's first attack. With no warning the image of Kakashi disappeared as he rushed forward, and the metallic _clang_ of kunai signaled the start of the match.

* * *

About an hour after Kakashi and Gai had left, Yoshino was beginning to wonder why she had ever questioned Naruto's well-being. True, he had started out quiet enough, still sucking his thumb, but Shikamaru had quickly realized that something was wrong and in his own, nearly-two-year-old way decided to offer some comfort.

"Naru-chan, up!" He had demanded as he wrapped his arms around the torso of the blue-eyed boy and struggled to pull his playmate into a standing position. "We gonna go out." The blond was of little help as he made no effort to keep his legs underneath him, and soon both boys had toppled backwards. Yoshino had listened carefully for any tears incase either toddler had boo-boos that needed attention, but they seemed to be all right. Shikamaru actually sighed in exasperation instead. "Com_mon_ Naru-chan," he whined.

"Shi?" was Naruto's reply from his position, lying on his back across Shikamaru's stomach. It was obvious he was curious as to what was going on, but to Yoshino it only sounded like the same syllable the blue-eyed toddler always used to address everyone in the Nara family. Clearly, this was not the case, as a year of play dates had allowed Shikamaru to speak fluent Narutoese.

"Dummy. We gonna see clouds. Clouds are fun. It make Naru-chan better, but we gotta go _out_."

"Shikamaru, don't call other people names," his mother admonished him. "Say you're sorry."

"Sorry," the black-haired boy said immediately with complete seriousness. It was a very serious matter when his mom told him to do something. If he didn't, he could be punished. "Mama, Naru-chan's gotta see clouds so he gets better. Like Daddy."

_So that's what this was about_, the woman thought. Whenever Shikamaru got upset—which was rare but happened on occasion—and his dad was around, Shikaku would take his son out to the lawn and the two would lay in the grass and stare up at the clouds as the younger Nara male curled against his father's side and his tears subsided. It was their special ritual that even Yoshino wasn't allowed in on. She was surprised that Shikamaru would let an outsider participate in the tradition.

"I'm not sure Naruto-chan wants to go outside yet, honey. I'm glad you're being so thoughtful, but why don't you wait a while and then I can take you both out. Just to the front yard though. Naruto's not allowed to go to the park today."

Shikamaru gave the blond head of his playmate a frown of dissapointment, since he couldn't face Naruto directly. "Trouble," he grumped. Yoshino hid a smile at the modification to her husband's favorite phrase. She had a feeling that one day it would perfectly describe the son of the Yondaime.

Then suddenly, out of the blue Naruto perked up. "Shi!" he cried rolling away from Shikamaru onto the floor and his stomach. "Block!" A chubby hand was lifted in the direction of a chest stuffed with toys, including the beloved colored blocks that Naruto always seemed to favor, and he began crawling toward it.

Shikamaru stuck out his tongue at the younger boy. "Not gonna play _now._ Too tired." As if to prove his point he gave a huge yawn a rolled over, resting his head on his hands. Naruto, however, was not about to let his friend off the hook. The older toddler's kindness was apparently enough to cheer him up and he was back to his familiar antics. Once he convinced Yoshino to help him open the toy chest, which was accomplished through a series of demanding cries ("Shi! Block!"), he made his way back over to the lazy, black-haired boy dragging the bucket of building blocks behind him as he scooted on his butt and dumped the entire thing over Shikamaru's outstretched body. Shikamaru, not surprisingly, did not appreciate the humor in this and from then on it was war.

The next hour continued in a cycle of small fights between the two toddlers as Naruto provoked Shikamaru, periods where they played relatively quietly together, and moments where Shikamaru was bored with whatever they had been doing and Naruto was left to his own devices. For the most part Yoshino was able to go about doing her daytime chores without giving the children too much supervision but currently she was keeping a look out from the corner of her eye. They were at the 'Naruto and his devices' stage and this time it consisted of unsteadily running around the living room in circles squealing with delight at the top of his lungs. It was highly amusing to the blond boy, but Yoshino was afraid he would fall and hit his head on one of the many toys that were now scattered about, and Shikamaru was showing signs of severe annoyance.

Yoshino sighed and realized that it was time to take things outdoors. "Alright boys, lets get your sandals on and head out. Shika-chan, do you still want to look at the clouds with Naruto-chan? I don't want you two to get grass stains on your clothes, so if you do I'm going to grab a blanket you can lie down on."

Shikamaru slowly got up from his latest resting place on the couch and leisurely walked over to the front entrance of the house where everyone's footwear was, only tripping over his feet once. He replied with a shrug and a grunt that sounded neither negative nor positive.

"That's not an answer Shika-chan," his mother admonished gently. "Yes or no?"

He whined a little, "_I_ dunnoooo. Too trouble."

Yoshino rolled her eyes and scolded, "Don't talk to me that way. You should be polite, and answer when I ask a question. I swear, you get more and more like your father everyday." She decided she would take one out just in case and turned her attention to the blond tornado still making his rounds. "Come on, Naruto," she said as she scooped him up mid-circle. He laughed happily at being caught and then found an interest in the mother's shoulder length hair. As he grabbed a handful and fanned it out, letting it fall from his fingers, Yoshino's mind wandered.

Why did this little bundle of energy in her arms seem so important? Yes, he was the son of the last Hokage, but why did that warrant all this protection? Kakashi's first job was _not_ care giving as he pretended (although he was much better at it now); it was to _guard_ Naruto. And why did a toddler need an _ANBU_ soldier standing outside of his babysitter's home? Would enemies of Konoha really try to assassinate the young son of dead leader?

A small finger reached out to tap Yoshino on the nose, a game the blue-eyed child had learned from her. She smiled uncertainly back at him and he gave a bright grin that was so characteristic. What dark secret could such a happy child have? She was beginning to worry—not for Naruto—but for her own family, however selfish that may have been. With Kakashi's concern about the going-on's of the village on her mind, the young mother decided that later tonight, when Naruto was gone and Shikamaru was in bed she would break her promise to keep silent to her husband. For a while now she had felt as if the secrecy was a betrayal to their marriage and she couldn't keep it up any longer.

Shikamaru already had his sandals halfway on, his mother noticed as she came nearer, and that seemed to be sufficient enough for him. Yoshino was a little more practical and wanted them to _stay_ on, so she helped pull them over his feet the rest of the way. Patiently the black-haired boy sat and waited while she moved on to the more active of the two boys, who refused to simply _let_ his shoes be put on as usual.

Suddenly he spoke up. "Naru-chan's a little brother, right Mama?"

"What?" she said in surprise. The idea of siblings had never been brought up before.

"Like Hideki-kun over there?" Shikamaru pointed toward the wall on his right, which Yoshino interpreted to mean their next-door neighbors. Arata-kun was the older boy and Hideki-kun his younger brother.

"Do you mean is Naruto-chan _your_ little brother?"

Shikamaru shrugged. He had asked the question because he wasn't entirely sure what a little brother was exactly, let alone whether he had one of his own or not.

"Well, kind of," his mother answered, "I mean, the two of you aren't related, but when he gets a little older Naruto-chan will probably start looking up to you. So in that sense, yes. He's like your little brother."

The two-year-old pondered this for a moment with his head tilted back. Then he looked back down, gave a decisive nod and said, "'Kay."

* * *

Soon after they exited the house the blanket was indeed laid out on the grass but neither boy had made extensive use of it. Shikamaru had lain down for a moment, but Naruto's ANBU guard—who hovered over the one-year-old boy as if assassins would rain down on him any moment now—had inspired the black-haired toddler to play with his wooden toy shuriken. None of them were aimed anywhere in particular. Shikaku had said that the idea was for him to get used to throwing them; they could work on target practice when he was in the academy. For now Yoshino was roped into searching for renegade throwing stars in the grass when Shikamaru threw them far enough away that they weren't in his immediate vicinity.

It was while she was searching for one of these that she happened to look down the road, only to notice a figure dashing towards them.

"Shikaku! You're home already? That was fast. I thought the meeting would go on longer. It's a little early for lunch and I invited Kakashi anyway, but I can whip something—"

"Yoshino," her husband interrupted her as he got closer. His expression was serious, not the lazy, devil-may-care attitude that he usually exuded but rather the battle hardened face that she had only seen a few times. "Sorry, I know you were expecting me later. Don't worry about lunch right now, things have kind of changed and I'll probably be staying home the rest of the day." He gave her an 'I'm home' kiss on the lips, but it was quick and she had a feeling it was supposed to reassure her more than anything. That meant her anxiety factor went up about five times.

"Honey, what's wrong? Kakashi was acting strangely earlier, too, when I told him where you went. Something's going on. What's happening?" she pressed.

A flash of something that looked like it was half annoyance, half anger crossed Shikaku's face at the mention of Kakashi. "I'll explain things later," he answered. "Stay here, I need to talk to the guard." He made a move to head towards his destination when he was stopped with a tug from below.

"Hey Daddy, Guess what?"

The jounin paused mid-stride and turned to his son who had a hold on his pant leg, "Hey buddy, I can't talk right now. Just wait a minute, okay?"

The youngest Nara frowned as if the idea of being put off was ridiculous as long as he hadn't thought of it, "No. Don't wanna wait. Gonna tell now."

"Shikamaru," his mother said hesitantly, "I don't think this is the best time. Why don't you wait till later?"

"_No_," he insisted. "Now."

Shikaku sighed and gave in but not before Yoshino heard a nearly indistinct 'really troublesome' escape his mouth. He knelt down to his son's level and put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "What is it little guy? I need you to make this quick."

Shikamaru gave his father a small innocent smile. "Guess what? Mama says Naru-chan's my little brother."

If you had asked her before hand what she would have expected her husband's reaction to such a statement would be, Yoshino would honestly have been unsure but she would have given several options. One, he might laugh it off. Two, he might raise an eyebrow and ask for more details. Three, he might role his eyes and say, "How troublesome," with a hint of laughter in his voice and creeping smile on his lips. Maybe something else. But _never_ would she have thought that Shikamaru's announcement would cause Shikaku to pale slightly, to take in a small gasp, to grip his son so tightly that he started to complain about the pain. Yoshino's anxiety factor was suddenly much higher.

"Listen to me Shika-chan," the jounin said urgently and swallowed with difficulty, "that's not true. Naruto can't be… he's…" He stopped and ran a hand down his face. "Shit," he swore and stood back up, pointing a finger at his wife as he walked away and commanded once again but with more force this time, "Stay there!"

"Mama?" Shikamaru turned to his mother with a confused look on his face. He had thought Daddy would like what he had said, but something about it was wrong.

Yoshino knelt down and silently wrapped her son in a hug. Both watched as their husband and father stood across from the ANBU guard and started having a whispered but heated conversation. Naruto sat on the ground between them and at one point looked up to the two men, but he quickly lost interest and went back to doing whatever, though she noticed that he had started to suck his thumb again. Suddenly the masked shinobi held a pointed kunai in his hands.

"Shikaku!" the black-haired woman screamed with a hand to her mouth, before she realized that her husband _wasn't_ being attacked. The ANBU, however, was now fully alert and at the ready, standing closer to Naruto than ever before and looking around.

Shikaku quickly made his way back over to his family and spent a few seconds comforting them, but was quickly giving out orders again. "Yoshino, listen to me. I need you and Shikamaru to get away from here and stay away for a good while. I don't care where you go, as long as it's in the village." He paused. "No, wait. Naruto lives in the center of the village, right? Don't go near there, but anywhere else is fine. Keep your head down, and don't do anything that will draw attention to you or remind anyone that you've spent time with Naruto. Avoid ninja—_all_ ninja—but if you have to trust any one it would be ANBU. They're the Hokage's chosen, so they should be in the loop, but don't count on it. Can you do that?"

"Not spo'sed to go out," Shikamaru spoke up and pointed out helpfully. "Kaka-niisan says."

This time Shikaku's face displayed pure anger at the name. "That damn copy brat can go fuck himself for all I care. The bastard put _my_ family in danger and didn't tell _me_ one damn thing about it."

Yoshino didn't even bother reprimanding her husband for swearing so heavily in front of their son. She was too busy feeling guilty at his words about keeping things from him when she had done the same for a whole year. The fact that she had been planning to reveal herself before did nothing to lessen her guilt. "Shikaku," she said quietly, "I… I think… I mean…we—we need to talk. When I get back. About…things."

Shikaku looked at her wordlessly for a moment, and seemed to understand a little as she glanced at the blond toddler before he answered. "Okay. It's all right. Just go, and don't come back for at _least_ a couple hours."

Yoshino stood and picked Shikamaru up in her arms. It would be faster than letting him walk and speed seemed to be of the essence today. Still unsure about how upset her husband would be later with her and whether or not she would even have a husband to come home to, she searched Shikaku's eyes for an answer and tried to inject as much feeling into her voice as she could. "I love you."

His face softened and he reached down to give her a much deeper kiss this time. "I love you, too. Don't worry, it will be alright," he reassured her.

"Love you too, Daddy," Shikamaru joined in, feeling it must be important. His parents smiled, although it was slightly strained, and then Yoshino turned to walk away. The young boy put his chin on his mother's shoulder and lazily waved to his playmate, calling out, "Bye-Bye, Naru-chan," before he wrapped his arms around her neck and closed his eyes.

Yoshino's back was turned to Naruto as she walked down the road, so she didn't see the watery blue-eyes that watched them leave, but she definitely heard the crying. His wails tugged at her motherly heartstrings and despite herself she looked back just as she turned the corner hoping to see someone comforting him. Instead, Shikaku's expression was hardened as he merely stared at the upset child from several yards away and the ANBU ignored the cries. With no understanding of what was going on, all Yoshino could do was keep walking, leaving with a sense of foreboding that caused her to hug her son tighter.

* * *

"Ha! Ha! Haaaaaaa-aaaah!"

"Damn it!" Kakashi swore as he dodged to the left, barely avoiding Gai's insane high-speed kick. He blocked another with his right arm and made a move into the opening that appeared, but Gai was ready for it and Kakashi was forced to back off.

Kakashi slid to a halt several yards away as both men paused, reassessing the other's weak points now that they had battled it out for a while. They were breathing harder and doing their best to conceal it, but other than that there wasn't much to exploit. Gai had a few nicks on his arm where Kakashi had barely grazed him with shuriken and kunai, and the silver-haired teen could feel a bruise forming on his side from a kick he hadn't managed to dodge. Still, neither jounin would allow such simple injuries slow them down.

In a moment Kakashi made his move. This time it was the green-clad shinobi who was on the defensive as he underestimated his sparring partner's first attempt and attacked, only to find that a Kawarimi no jutsu had been performed, a large log standing in his way. He quickly dropped to dodged the punch heading for the back of his head and made for a sweep to the copy-nin's legs, but the younger jounin flipped over him to avoid the attack and wasted no time in coming back.

Even if Gai had been ready for the next barrage from the silver-haired shinobi it would have done him no good as he realized the extent to which he had underestimated Kakashi. He had thought the copy-nin was unconsciously holding back a little from the worry he had displayed earlier and so Gai, too, had kept some of his power in reserve, thinking that his comrade was distracted enough not to take the contest seriously. Too late he was realizing how stupid that was. For one, the taijutsu shinobi knew that Kakashi _always_ took their contests seriously, no matter how much he protested against them. For another, he had seen this pattern in Kakashi's fighting style before; he wouldn't use his full abilities until he was confident that he had the upper hand.

It wasn't that Gai couldn't have fought back at all had he been prepared. He knew exactly how to stop every one of the younger teen's attacks—and did—but he was always a second behind, still defending himself from the last kick just as another punch or kunai was aimed in his direction, and that one second was what could cost a ninja his life and left the older jounin unable to counter attack.

Gai knew he was losing. He could _see_ it, and he was just beginning to recognize that all his defending was wearing him out faster than it was Kakashi. Still, there was no way in hell that he would insult his friend by backing down and giving up. He was ready to fight to the end, when it happened.

XXXXX

Kakashi was about to give the finishing blow. From the beginning he had seen that Gai was using less than his full potential and had planned to exploit it, but somehow it hadn't worked out quite the way he wanted. His head was all over the place, starting with his worry for Naruto. It startled him because he had never been concerned about anyone like this before, including Rin. Whenever thoughts that Naruto might _not_ be safe came into his head, his whole body would freeze for a split moment and rebel, as if it wanted to turn around and run as fast as it could towards the village whether Kakashi consented or not. Then he would get everything back under control and somehow finish what he was doing, be it defensive or offensive.

On top of that, as infrequently as he had come to this field, he hadn't actually fought on it since his team began to fall apart. It wasn't as if images of Obito were superimposed over Gai or anything, but even though it had been years since the two had actually had any kind of confrontation Kakashi kept finding himself reacting to an attack as if it would be much weaker, or a different form.

Gradually, though, he forced himself to work through it, to _concentrate_, to _forget_ about the past or the future and focus on _right now_. He imagined it was like some kind of intense hands-on therapy that would have had his psych evaluation doctor spitting out all sorts of medical jargon, but all Kakashi cared about was that it meant he would be able to fight Gai on an equal level.

Finally he had worked himself up to his normal level of combat and attacked with everything he had. Gai wasn't prepared, and Kakashi was beating him down, although to the fuzzy-eye browed man's credit he never gave up and made the copy-nin fight for all he was worth to the very end. He was about to finish it with a combination move starting with a powerful kick when it happened.

"Kakashi-san!"

The voice was far off, enough that, had this been any other day, he probably would have been too involved in the fight to hear it, or recognize his name, or just ignored it all together. Instead he turned his head slightly and his attack slowed a fraction. He had enough time to notice a black figure jumping towards them out of the corner of his eye before Gai, who hadn't heard the cry, blocked the kick with his hands and was able to come around with three fast ones of his own to Kakashi's chest that sent him flying. The copy-nin slammed into the ground and dust went flying as he slid back several yards.

"Shit!" he heard Gai's voice over the ringing in his ears from hitting his head. "Kakashi are you okay? I thought you would be guarding, I did not realize you were not paying attention."

Kakashi waved the older jounin off as he stepped closer, "I'm fine. I don't think I have a concussion, just hit my head, and no broken ribs so it's okay." A hand went to his forehead. "Ow. Alright, so maybe it hurts a little."

Suddenly a cat-shaped masked face was shoved into his own and a hand roughly grabbed his chin and pushed his headband up, tilting his head back and forth before the ANBU realized the futility of checking the pupil of the foreign Sharingan against that of Kakashi's own normal eye. "Damn. Well, you better hope you're all right kid. You don't have any time to waste."

"Uh, sorry," Kakashi said to the man as he blinked in uncertainty, "but I'm not sure I follow."

"Naruto's in danger," the man said briskly.

The jounin's breath caught in his throat at the news and his chest tightened. He tried to listen to the rest of the message before he dashed of without any information and made things worse, but it wasn't easy.

"That bastard Danzou finally found out about the kid and he's using it to try and overthrow Hokage-sama again. By the time we found out he had managed a secret gathering it was too late. There's now a _very_ angry mob of shinobi that want to lynch the tyke. Sandaime is ordering them to stand down, but worse case scenario we have a civil war on our hands. Hokage-sama wants you back home doing your job kid, so we can focus on ours."

Kakashi had stopped hearing what the masked man said after 'lynch the tyke' and his mind began running frantically, but instead of making everything clear for the copy-nin he was freezing up. As if on autopilot his body stood up but after that he was lost and didn't move. "Naruto," he choked out more to himself than anyone else, "not him too. I can't… I have to keep him alive." Vaguely he was aware that Gai and the masked man were talking—maybe at him, maybe to each other—but the words didn't seem important. _Move!_ He screamed at his body, _Move!_ But he could tell that he was losing it, _now _of all times he couldn't keep himself together. His vision began to tunnel and images flashed through his head, first his father's corpse lying cold on the ground, then Rin's crying face, the dying Yondaime, and the bloody image of Obito, standing in this same training field.

_The dream,_ Kakashi remembered with a start, _It's that dream._ A strangled and hysterical laugh was wrenched from his lips. _Is this what you meant, Obito? Is this what you were trying to tell me? _The image only stared at him. _This must be fate. I'm not meant to save them, am I? I'll never make it in time. After all I'm just less than worthless._

Suddenly the image of Obito scowled at him in disapproval. _You still can't see the things you _should_ be looking at, can you?_

"Damn it, are you even listening? You have to leave! Kakashi, GO!"

The yell snapped him back, the dead Uchiha's face disappearing as Kakashi realized who was speaking the words from the dream in his place. Gai was practically toe-to-toe with him, shouting in his face and probably ready to punch him too.

"Gai, what-?"

"Look, I don't know what's going on in your head, or what is really happening with Naruto even, but you have to snap out of it _now_! There is still time for you to head back!" The older jounin gave Kakashi a shove in the direction of the village, and it seemed to shake the copy-nin out of his stupor.

"I need to head back, see if the situation's gotten any worse," spoke up the ANBU when he thought the jounin had gotten himself together enough that he could follow orders, and with that he was off in a blur of motion.

"Right," said the silver-haired teen as he made to go with the masked man, but after a moment turned to his comrade instead. "Um, thanks for…I was…" he tried to stutter out something quickly with little success and some discomfort.

"No problem," Gai smiled as he held out a thumb's up. "I've always got your back, rival!"

Something twisted inside the copy-nin's chest, but the urgency of the situation left little time for examination. Instead he gave a nod to the fuzzy-eye browed man and shot off into the distance.

_Just hang on, Naruto. I swear I won't let you down. Just hang on!_

* * *

**A/N: **Okay, so I know I tend to do a lot of explaining about my story, but I just want to let people know where I'm coming from. In any case, if you think that Shika-chan sounds a little older than his one year and ten months of age, just remember that he ends up with a high IQ, so I figure that he's going to be a little more mentally developed than most two year olds. Also, Yoshino probably wouldn't have much to compare him to, except for Naruto who is pretty much at the other end of the spectrum, so she wouldn't see it as "strange", just "normal".

Let me know what you think, review or criticisim accepted!


	6. Attacking

**Rating:** PG-13 for language

**Pairings:** None

**Spoilers:** Chapter 379 through 402 (the truth behind Itachi)

**A/N:** I have to apologize for how long this chapter took to come out. Six months is a long time to wait, and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the people who were interested in this story have given up on it for one reason or another. To all of you who are sticking it out with me, I'm really grateful. This was the chapter from hell for me, with problems from the very start, literally. I managed to push through it though, and I love the story enough that I want to see it through till the end, whether people still read it or not.

That being said, I can't believe I reached a hundred reviews! I remember a time when reaching 20 reviews was cause for celebration, and the last chapter reached that goal within the first few days of posting. Thanks to you all so much, especially those people who kept hoping for more even when it looked like the story wasn't going to be updated! I'm sorry I left you with a cliffhanger, and apparently the idea that Shikaku is a cold-hearted bastard in my story. Hopefully I've changed that image here. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** Oh my god, can you imagine if we had to wait months at a time for the next installment of Naruto? I'm glad that responsibility is on someone else's shoulders.

**Summary/Snippet: **"Hokage-sama, you sure the kid was the best choice for guardian? When I told him what was going on he froze up and I keep wondering if I really shoulda left him to go for it on his own. Just doesn't seem like he's ready for this at all."

* * *

Fire in Your Eyes

by Psychick

Chapter 6: Attacking

In the six decades Sarutobi had lived through he had seen and experienced a lot. He had felt joy and pain, love and hate. He had seen children be born and watched others grow old and die. He had grieved over friends he had lost in battle and celebrated at the accomplishments of academy students. He had been rescued by those he wouldn't have thought trustworthy and betrayed by those he would have entrusted his life to. He had seen strong militaries fall at the hands of their enemies and small villages rise up against their leaders. He had watched sacrifice for others and sacrifice for self. Yet out of all of this only Orochimaru's deception had left him more disappointed than the actions of the man standing before him and those who had left the meeting with hate in their intentions.

"Danzou, you are a fool." The Hokage spoke softly, but his voice was strong and full of anger as it reverberated around the empty meeting hall. At his side stood a team of three ANBU guards, the only ones who could be spared to back him up as the others went around town carrying out his orders.

Danzou himself was flanked mostly by a few low-level chuunin, but Sarutobi recognized the face of at least one jounin. All of his flunkies had cocky grins that clearly showed their confidence in this latest scheme of Danzou's. Sandaime suspected that many of them had been promised some type of reward if his plans came to fruition.

"My dear Hokage," the one armed man replied with much sarcasm, " I do believe it is not I who is the fool. What on earth did you _think_ would happen if you hid something like this from the people? Now that the secret is out everyone will see that you are not fit to be the ruler of this village."

"A Hokage is no _ruler_, Danzou, he is a _leader_ which is why **you** will never become one. I have no intention of explaining my reasoning to you. You wouldn't _begin_ to understand what I hope to accomplish and would only twist my words for your own purposes."

A smile crept over the bandaged face. "Me, twist your words? Have you lost your mind as well as your power? I no longer _need_ to do any such thing. The people will do it for me. You may have kept the loyalty of some of your soldiers, Sarutobi, but the trust from the village as a whole will vanish."

The short, brown-haired black-ops soldier wearing a tiger mask to the Sandaime's right bristled. "You will respect the Hokage, traitor, and refer to him by his title!" Sarutobi held out his hand to keep the young man from taking his anger too far. If the ANBU had a fault it was that they were sometimes excessive in their loyalty. The principle may have been right—the more people stopped respecting the title of Hokage the less power he had and the harder it would become to rectify the situation, which Danzou undoubtedly knew—but the masked soldier had taken the insubordination personally. That was exactly what the bandaged man was hoping for. Not only would it not intimidate him in the least, he would use any physical attack on him to prove that the older man's power and influence was so little he couldn't even control his own hand-picked black-ops.

If Danzou was disappointed that the shinobi was held back, he didn't show it. In fact, he laughed. "Title? And how long do you think your precious Sandaime will hold onto his title? He endangered the entire village with his secrets and planning! That boy should never have existed longer than the few seconds it would take to pull a kunai out after the Kyuubi was sealed inside him. The fact that he lives among us is completely reckless, and as you have seen I am not the only one who feels this way."

"Don't spout your lies at me," Sarutobi scowled, "You have no interest in keeping this village safe. Your first priority is to gain my position and you will say or do whatever it takes to attain it. Had the Kyuubi never existed you would have grasped at the next best thing."

Danzou shrugged and leaned forward on his cane. "I care little for matters that 'could have' happened. What's important is the tools I have before me, and you, my dear Sarutobi, have provided me with an excellent one." He lowered his voice and his expression changed to one of utter seriousness. "I _will_ become the Hokage, old man. No matter what it takes, or how long. If that abomination is to be the sacrifice on my way to ruler of Konoha, then so be it."

Sarutobi would never let anyone in the room see it, including his own men, but inside he was shaking with fury. Had he thought killing the one-armed man would have helped the situation, he might have acted upon his impulse. Instead the Sandaime was forced to settle for the last word as his enemy walked by him on his way across the meeting hall towards the door. "On my life, Danzou, I will never allow you to become Hokage, or to touch that child. I would still have _that_ much influence with the council at least, even if I were stripped of my title. And if I _do _lose my position, I will go through this entire village to keep Naruto safe if I have to. I swear it."

The ex-shinobi ignored the older man and continued on, but his entourage was apparently still primed for a fight as one of them purposely bumped into the same hot-blooded ANBU that had spoken up before. To the boy's credit he didn't loose complete control and attack the man, but Sarutobi was still thankful that his captain had the presence of mind to grab his subordinate's arm before all hell broke out. For a moment there was a standoff as the tiger-masked shinobi stared down his officer. The rat-faced captain held his ground and with a jerk the team member tore his arm free and backed off.

As the last chuunin walked out the door the Hokage noticed a cat-masked black-ops soldier slip in and make his way over. Sarutobi was eager for his report, but before he could ask, the Rat interrupted him.

"Hokage-sama, I don't mean to question your motives or your words, but our jobs will be a lot easier if this isn't suddenly sprung on us at the last minute." The empty black eye-sockets of the mask bore into the Sandaime as the grey-haired captain pressed him. "Were you serious about what you just said?"

"Woah." The long, black ponytail of the Cat whipped around as he looked at his teammates. "Did I miss something big? We ain't talking war yet, are we?"

The last member of the squad answered, a woman with shoulder-length red hair and the unfortunate luck of a fox mask. "Hokage-sama has just sworn his life to protect the vessel." Her words were stiff, almost robotic and monotone, but she somehow managed to convey a level of disapproval that showed just how much she thought of that plan.

"He's not just a vessel!" the Tiger bit out as he faced his teammates. "He's the son of the Yondaime! You should respect that—!"

"Chill, Shorty," the Cat raised a hand to cut him off before he could begin to rant. "We don't have time to argue semantics."

"Your answer, Hokage-sama?" asked their captain, dutifully ignoring the others as they argued. Such a common occurrence would not deter him from getting his answer.

Sarutobi looked straight into the eyes of the mask to convey his seriousness, although he had to tilt his head up slightly to do so. "My words are never to be taken lightly in a situation like this, Captain. I have confidence that we can avoid much of the conflict that will undoubtedly occur if we do not handle things carefully, but I'm am not as big a fool as Danzou thinks. I was aware that this day might come, though I did not expect that man to be the instigator. An oversight on my part. Yet I do not wish for Naruto to become a martyr." The Hokage's eyes softened with sadness as he continued. "The Yondaime sacrificed what was most precious to him to save his people. It was never his intention to have the people shun the boy. The least we can do is to make sure his son survives as he wished, even if it means Naruto must live far from his birthplace."

When he finished his speech, the captain paused for a moment before bowing his head. "Very well. My team is at your disposal sir. If it comes to the removal of the boy, you may rest assured that we will do all we can to assist you."

Sarutobi nodded his head in thanks and made to move for the doorway. It was time to head into the village to do what damage control he could. ANBU teams had been sent out to try and keep the men and women who had left the meeting from raising to much of a fuss, but mob mentality was hard to predict and even harder to control, not to mention the fact that there weren't nearly enough teams to cover every shinobi who would be bringing the news to the villagers. Sandaime himself wasn't even sure of exactly what he would be able to do once he got out into the midst of things, but his first step was to examine the situation.

"Damn, but doesn't this suck," commented the Cat with a sigh as he fell into place next to the Tiger and behind the Hokage. His captain walked to the right of the village leader while the redheaded Fox stepped to his left as the continued down the hall. "No matter what happens, we're gonna end up fighting our comrades. It's a shame people are only talking about the Kyuubi. Yondaime-sama was a good man, and I've seen his kid, poor thing wouldn't hurt a fly."

The Fox looked back to give her black-haired teammate a reprimanding glance for presuming to talk so much while on duty. Sarutobi was used to Cat's lacking discipline, however, and didn't mind so much, as the ANBU soldier was very good about protocol when the situation really required it. "I actually hope we can keep any discussion away from the topic of the Yondaime. So far Danzou has only angered the village against a child who has done nothing more than exist, but I fear he may try to vilify the boy's father. If that happens, things may really get beyond our control. A dead man can't persuade anyone to change their mind." He didn't bother mentioning his personal desire that Naruto grow up at the very least not blaming his father, but if the entire village destroyed the previous Hokage's reputation there was no way the lone victim of his heroics would respect him.

"How did it go at the training grounds?" the Hokage asked the Cat, changing the subject. "I assume Kakashi is well on his way to the Nara's."

"Well…yeah, he is, but…" the ANBU soldier seemed to struggle with something before he continued. "Hokage-sama, you sure the kid was the best choice for guardian? When I told him what was going on he froze up and I keep wondering if I really shoulda left him to go for it on his own. Just doesn't seem like he's ready for this at all."

His shorter teammate was completely incredulous at this statement. "Are you seriously questioning the Hokage's decision?!" He started to wave his arms around to emphasize his point. "Sandaime-sama only has Naruto-san's best interest in mind, not to mention his years of experience with commanding his troo—"

"Look you," growled the pony-tailed ANBU as he made an attempt to still the younger man's arms by twisting them behind his back. Sarutobi smiled distractedly as the Rat commander sharply reprimanded the two men. Comradeship came in many forms and as much as they fought each other off the battlefield, there was no question that the Cat and the Tiger fought side by side better than many other teams.

"Cat has made a valid point," the redheaded Fox continued the conversation. "The guardian is a shinobi and as such should have expected these threats. What else did he think we were guarding the vessel for? It might be beneficial to consider a more experienced jounin or ANBU to handle the situation."

"I don't believe that unexpectedness was quite the reason for Kakashi's distress," answered Sarutobi before the discussion could get out of hand. They had reached the last staircase leading to the ground floor and he could see two more ANBU waiting to give reports along with a serious looking group of chuunin and jounin behind them. "You have never really met him before, but don't be so quick to discount his ability. I have faith that he will pull through for the boy."

* * *

The trip back to the village took an eternity. Kakashi was nearly certain that the entire town had moved a few kilometers farther away than when he had left it, and his frustration wasn't helped by the fact that even the closest entrance forced him to run around in a somewhat parabolic curve instead of a straight line towards Naruto. To make up for it he ran across rooftops whenever he could rather than take the convoluted streets and pathways that led up to the north district. Still, with no information about what was going on or who he might encounter he couldn't really do any specific planning beyond preparing himself for anything. This left him open to thinking about other things; mainly Yoshino's words that morning.

"_Shikaku said he would try to come home for lunch if he got out of that big meeting they were calling everyone for today, so you two are welcome to join us after your training."_

He had gotten careless, the copy-nin realized. He was supposed to protect Naruto from dangers like this, but since up until now no one had known about the Kyuubi the biggest threat to the toddler's safety had been his own antics and curiosity. Kakashi had begun to trust Shikaku and Yoshino because they had both treated the toddler as if he were one of their own, but he had forgotten that they might not be so welcoming when they found out the secrets being hidden from them. The jounin guessed that a part of him assumed he would always be there with Naruto when the Naras discovered everything.

There were a half a dozen other errors that the copy-nin could have pointed out to himself but he was getting closer to his destination and he had to focus, to be ready incase he would be entering a hostile situation. As he ran he took in his surroundings checking to see how the crowds were acting. He was no good to Naruto if he got caught in a mob of angry chuunin and jounin, but the area seemed fairly clear. There were groups of people going about their daily business, all civilians and all with smiles on their faces and friendly greetings on their lips.

Danzou may have told the others that 'Naruto' was the Kyuubi vessel but Naruto wasn't actually a prominent figure in the village, which gave him and his guards the advantage of being able to hide him in plain sight. Kakashi's neighbor's and maybe even some of those living near the Naras knew his name, but that was the extent of his fame. Many didn't even remember that the Yondaime _had_ a son and Kakashi wasn't about to declare the information publicly. Someone _would_ eventually figure out who the Kyuubi vessel was, but it would take some time. The most immediate threat came from those who were aware of Naruto's identity.

Kakashi sped up leaping across a market street and zigzagged across a few neighborhoods. He had almost reached Yoshino's house when he heard a noise that sent his heart racing. From somewhere up ahead a child was crying loudly in a way that Kakashi recognized as desperate and confused. There was no way he could be sure it was Naruto, but under the assumption that it was he would have to prepare for the worst. While tears meant the one-year old was alive, Yoshino would never have let him get so upset. The jounin speed up and prayed that he would make it in time.

As he crested the roof of the last house, Kakashi glanced at the scene before him and, without thinking too much, took action. Shikaku, kunai in hand, was leaning down towards the wailing Naruto. Raging fury and a sting of fear overtook him as he jumped down, drawing his own weapons as he did so.

"Get away from him, you bastard!" he roared, landing in front of the shadow user and using an upward slash that, had it connected, would have sliced through the man's vest and chest creating a nasty wound. Shikaku managed to block it with a startled look on his face and the copy-nin pressed his advantage. If the older jounin expected him to back off because they had gotten along well before, he was sorely mistaken. Kakashi fully intended to kill the man for going after Naruto, comrade or not.

The silver-haired ninja brought his fist around and Shikaku tried to pull his head back but was too late. The blow connected with the older man's face full on and he fell back, pain clouding his thoughts as blood streamed down from a broken nose. Just as he landed on the ground and his vision cleared the other jounin's image loomed above him, his eyes full of hate. Kakashi was straddled across him, his left hand pressing the shadow-user's right arm with the kunai into the grass. Shikaku cursed himself as blood began running down his throat and choking him. When he realized what the younger jounin was doing he had intended to manipulate his shadow, but in this position that was impossible. Knowing there was nothing left to do, he waited for the blow and tried not to breathe in too much blood as Kakashi raised his kunai, ready to finish his senior comrade off.

The copy-nin was so focused on Shikaku that he had forgotten about the constant protection detail that came with the blond toddler's presence and never noticed the ANBU guard in the yard with them. The kick came to his right side, just above where Gai had gotten him earlier. While it wasn't nearly as strong as the taijutsuist's, it was powerful enough to knock him off the older man. This time he was able keep from hitting the ground too hard and he used one arm to protect the rest of his body.

Shikaku could be heard trying to cough up the blood from the back of his throat as he sat up. Thinking the shadow-user might still have his guard down, and not wanting to take on two high-ranked shinobi at the same time if he could help it, Kakashi stood up quickly. As he did so a wave of pain and vertigo overtook him and he nearly fell down again. He briefly wondered if the cat-masked soldier had been right to question if he had a concussion but ignored it in favor of the battle in front of him. Unfortunately, his few seconds of weakness had cost him dearly, and with growing horror he realized that he couldn't move. He was unable to look down, but staring straight ahead at a badger mask and the hard face of Shikaku who was glaring at him, he could see that one shadow was facing the wrong direction.

"Now what?" asked the green-haired ANBU soldier as they stood glaring at the younger jounin. His masked face turned towards the toddler who had witnessed the entire thing.

Naruto had managed to push himself up to his feet and was unsteadily walking toward them, arms outstretched. Tears were still streaming down his face and his snot was doing a pretty good imitation of Shikaku's bloody nose. However, instead of the wailing that he had been putting all his energy into before, the blond was only sobbing with an intermittent, "Kaaa! Kaaaa!" breaking it up.

"Stay _back_, Naruto! Don't come any closer!" Kakashi cried, unable to prevent the panic in his voice. He could move his right eye around to watch the toddler out of the corner of it and prayed that the boy would stop, but Naruto could only see that his guardian had returned for him and kept waddling in their direction.

"Well?" the Badger pressed Shikaku even as he moved to stand in the path of the blue-eyed boy, effectively cutting Kakashi off from his charge even if he could move.

"_Now_ I get some revenge," bit out the jounin.

"NO!" Kakashi's whole body shivered as he strained against his invisible bonds. _Damn it!_ he thought. _If I could only move! Just a little! I just need to stop them! Please, just move!_

To the copy-nin's surprise, instead of moving towards Naruto with his kunai ready, Shikaku holstered the weapon and took a step forward. His shadow technique was advanced enough that Kakashi wasn't forced to follow his movements forward, but the younger jounin was surprised to see the shadow-user pull his own arm back as he came nearer.

"What the hell are you doing?" called out the black-ops soldier, apparently just as surprised and not expecting this turn of events.

_What the hell is he doing?_ Kakashi echoed the question in his mind. Even if he hadn't been made to move as Shikaku had, if the older jounin did anything to hurt the copy-nin it would be reciprocated.

"Dumbass," Shikaku ground out as he stopped close enough to reach Kakashi, and read the question in the younger jounin's eyes, "you think just because it's not complete I don't have full control over my own technique?" Suddenly, at the same time he released the shadows, he punched the teen in the side of the face. For the third time in less than half an hour Kakashi was sent flying, but the black-haired man remained uninjured. "How the _fuck_ can you call yourself a shinobi?!"

"Oi!" shouted the ANBU, "Don't do that! Don't hurt him more than you have to! If he gets injured too badly then he's useless as a guardian!"

The badger-masked man was completely ignored as the shadow user raged on. "If we had really been after Naruto's head he would have been _dead_ by now, thanks to your stupidity! Not _only_ did you _not_ notice the second man, you left Naruto _wide open_ for an attack! You should have stayed by his side the moment you pushed me away! Those are fucking _genin_ mistakes Kakashi! Aren't you supposed to be one of the best? Why the hell are you acting like an academy drop-out?"

Kakashi tried to push himself up as he listened to the older man, but nearly fell down again as he got to his feet. He began to realize why it was so hard to stay upright. _Not now, _he thought as he tried to push the pain in his torso down. _I've taken hits from Gai before. I've been through worse. I have to focus only on getting Naruto out of here. _But the jounin knew the truth was that Gai hadn't gotten an unguarded hit on him since they were kids. He had never been someone to take lightly as a taijutsuist, but even more so now that the energetic man was older, more experienced and at least twice as strong.

Shikaku was oblivious to the copy-nin's pain. There was no question he was pissed about the Kyuubi. Having the thing that nearly killed him a year and a half ago so close to his wife and only son without being told of the danger they were in had made him livid to the point that half of his trip back home had been filled with thoughts of taking the son of a bitch out. It was while he was imagining the hundreds of ways he could torture the demon that he realized he would have to slip his kunai through the ribcage of a blond haired, wide-eyed infant he had rocked to sleep only three weeks ago when Yoshino had been busy. He would have to snap the neck of the laughing one year old that he had tickled to fits along with his son. He would have to strangle the life out of the baby who had smiled up at him and greeted him as he walked through the door one year ago. All just to get revenge on demon Naruto was too young to refuse having sealed inside of him.

That was the moment the dots all connected. The mysterious death of the Yondaime. The reason Naruto was always guarded. The Sandaime's attempt to keep everything hidden for as long as possible.

The _Yondaime_ had sealed the Kyuubi in _his own son_.

The hero of Konoha had sacrificed his life and his family so that no one else would have to suffer. He had never asked more of the village members than he was willing to give up himself. Shikaku knew, without any thought, that he would have never been able to do the same thing with Shikamaru and that the Yondaime, good man that he was, would have felt the same. Yet he had pushed aside his feelings as a father, risked the life of his newborn child to save the villagers, probably hoping and praying with everything he had that someone would see the human that he would have loved and cared for had the blonde man survived rather than the monster he locked away with his own hands.

_That_ was what the current Hokage had been trying to nurture. _That_ was what Kakashi was trying to protect.

They had done it, too. Naruto was a good kid, anyone could see that.

Shikaku had tried to measure his anger again and found that he was still furious, but there was no way he would be able to hurt the _human_ to get to the _demon_. Even if that weren't the case, now that he knew what the Yondaime—a man Shikaku respected for working a hell of a lot harder than _he_ would ever care to and for being a damn good ninja rather than just a political figure—had done, the shadow user felt he had to respect the late Hokage's wish for "life."

But Kakashi was ready to screw the whole thing up. The kid was supposed to be a freaking _genius_, had _definitely_ been faced with battle situations and hostage situations, and _still_ managed to loose his head and attack wildly. That wasn't the way a jounin—hell, that wasn't the way a _chuunin_ was trained to react.

Shikaku grabbed the younger man by his vest as he wobbled unsteadily to his feet and shook him a little. "If you're going to have the balls to put _my wife_ and _my son_ in danger, then you better have the ability to back it up. What if someone had gotten to them first? Well, kid?! What would you have—" Three well aimed shuriken nearly sliced the skin off both his and Kakashi's nose as they passed through the space between their faces and embedded themselves in a nearby tree. The older jounin instinctively pushed the copy-nin back to avoid them, but the silver-haired teen was oddly unresponsive, breathing heavily and stumbling back in an awkward position.

"That's enough!" demanded the ANBU guard from where he stood, still standing next to a weeping Naruto. The toddler had stumbled and fallen in his attempt to reach Kakashi, sitting awkwardly in the grass. Snot and tears still streaked down his face and having much of his fist in his mouth, instead of just a thumb, muffled the shortened version of the copy-nin's name. Whether the masked soldier noticed any of this, or rather whether he cared about it or not, never showed in his body language. Instead he held a handful of shuriken that were no doubt ready to be launched in the jounins' direction should they continue their fight.

"Shikaku-san, I know that you're angry. You have every right to be. But Naruto is under Kakashi-san's care, and beating the shit out of him isn't going to help any of us. Kakashi-san—Shikaku-san is right. I get that you haven't needed to use it in a while, but that's no excuse to ignore all your training and experience."

The ANBU man waited for acknowledgement that common sense had reawakened in the other two. Shikaku gave a noncommittal grunt, which seemed to be good enough for the special ops soldier, but to the green-haired man's annoyance the teen didn't answer, instead wrapping an arm around his stomach and clutching his side.

"Kakashi-san!"

Kakashi turned his head towards the shout and after a moment seemed to squeeze an answer out. "Yeah. Alright."

Shikaku stared suspiciously at the way Kakashi favored his side. If he had really been fine the silver-haired shinobi wouldn't have hesitated to stand up straight. The shadow user walked over to the teen to inspect the injury. He was expecting some resistance—a hand to slap him away or a snappish warning to stay back—but all he got was a wary glance and a hiss as he put pressure on the area Kakashi was guarding. A year away from the field really had turned the kid soft if all it took was a couple harsh words from an ANBU to get him to drop his guard around the one person he had been convinced was a threat only moments ago.

However the masked ANBU seemed more worried about the injury. "I didn't hit him _that_ hard. How could that have happened?"

"Training," answered Kakashi. "I…lost focus for a moment and Gai caught me unguarded."

The mask covered the black-ops soldier's face but the disapproval in his voice betrayed the frown that was most likely beneath it. "You can't afford to lose focus Kakashi-san. Injury will prevent you from being able to protect the boy properly. The mission is a shinobi's number one priority. You should know these things. How can we trust you with his safe—"

"I know! I get it!" snapped the young jounin as he brushed Shikaku aside and moved towards Naruto. "You think Naruto's safety isn't something I'm always thinking about? Because I can assure you, right now there is nothing else on my mind!"

"Then start acting like it," responded the Badger. "You're a jounin. Better trained than what you've shown me so far. I don't give a damn if it has been a year since you've had a real field-assignment, I know that mind of yours that the Hokage has praised so highly remembers every single detail. You need to stop letting your emotions control you. You're a Konoha shinobi, and it's high time you start doing the job you were assigned."

Kakashi had made his way over to the blond toddler still at the ANBU's feet, only half listening to the lecture he was receiving. Naruto had practically launched himself into the teen's arms and amazingly the copy-nin was able to pick the boy up without falling over, although it hurt like a bitch. As the younger of the two wrapped his arms around the shinobi's neck and sobbed into his shoulder, Kakashi held him close and whispered soothing words into his ear.

"Don't worry, shhh…. I've got you now, it's all right…we're going home now, shhhh…I'll protect you…I promise Naruto…I promised you—"

Shikaku's voice interrupted his ramblings. "Kakashi, the _last_ thing you want to do is go home. It's not likely, but if anybody is able to piece the clues together, that's the first place people will look for you, you understand?"

Kakashi realized with some irritation that the older jounin was right. The fact that he hadn't thought of it first made even more annoyed. His judgment was becoming severely impaired by his anger, it was obvious even to him, but the emotion was powerful and hard to control.

The Sharingan user had thought he had learned to temper his antagonism, as becoming furious every time things had gone wrong with Naruto was not only unhelpful but also dangerous to the infant. Now it was apparent that handling his fury in a more controlled situation where the biggest danger was himself had left Kakashi unprepared for dealing with threats to those he cared about from others.

"The Hokage is going to want to see you anyway," reminded the Badger. "I've no doubt that he has new orders for us."

"Avoid the Phoenix if you can," the jounin advised. The Phoenix was one of the many local bars, but this particular one was a favorite haunt of many shinobi. "If they've figured the Kyuubi's identity out the crowd probably won't be there anymore, but they'd want to let the others know what they've learned. A bunch of drunkards'll be more trouble than they're worth."

"Anything else we should be concerned about?" Kakashi asked, determined to not act like a complete novice. "I didn't even hear about this meeting, and I only know that Danzou's behind it."

Shikaku shook his head. "That's all I really know at this point, too. I left the meeting as soon as I realized who he was talking about. The rest really wasn't important." The shadow-nin paused for a moment, glancing down the road with a torn expression on his face and turning back to say something, but the green-haired Badger read his intentions before he even spoke them aloud.

"Don't worry about us. Your wife will want some explanation when she comes back, I'm sure. I can manage these two."

The jounin nodded in thankful agreement. "Yeah, alright. Be careful."

With a roll of the eyes that were mostly hidden behind his mask, the badger answered, "I can do my damn job, Nara. Watch out for yourself." A nod of his head indicated which direction he was heading and Kakashi followed, Naruto cradled tightly in his arms.

* * *

Sarutobi stepped into his office, leaving the ANBU team to stand guard outside the entrance. He had managed to dispel the crowd of shinobi that had gathered, eager for answers as to why they had been deceived all this time. The fear in some of their eyes had told the aging Hokage that many were hoping the story was a lie, that the creature that had plagued them over a year ago was not actually hiding amongst them, masquerading as one of their own.

Unfortunately, giving answers in such an unorganized fashion would only increase the confusion among the citizens and make them more prone to lashing out. The only thing he could really tell them was that he would answer all their questions in a formal address to the people later on. This was somewhat unsatisfactory to the soldiers, but the Sandaime had built up a reservoir of trust in the people from his years of reigning before the Yondaime, and they had backed off.

The village leader was more concerned with those who were less given to asking for words of assurance and more prone to immediate action. They would be the ones who were stirring things up in the town bars and the local hang outs for other shinobi. They would also be the source of information to the civilians, which was even worse as they would definitely exaggerate or at least twist the story. Sarutobi had already received two accounts of such an occurrence from his ANBU.

One had resulted in a standoff that the jounin and chuunin had been talked out of by a nearby storekeeper with a lot of courage and a calm head, but the other had ended with minor injuries to two hotheaded chuunin and one of the special ops soldiers who wasn't expecting such hostility from his comrades. It was unfortunate, but not unexpected and the Hokage knew that the sooner he gave the people information—_accurate_ information—the better.

Before he could finish clearing the piles of unattended paperwork off his desk to make room to write, a knock came from the door and the Sandaime, trusting in the masked guard's abilities to keep unwanted persons away, gave permission to enter as he sat down.

"Hokage-sama," the monkey-masked ANBU addressed him as he stepped through the door. The aging village leader watched carefully for anyone following behind the man, but he was alone which actually made him the one person Sarutobi did _not_ want to see unaccompanied right now.

"Well?" he asked irritably.

The black ops soldier hesitated, almost second guessing himself in the face of the village leader and his annoyance, but based on what the masked man knew of the current situation he was almost certain that he had made the right decision to report back alone, although he suddenly realized he hadn't been able to check in with the others on any developments since yesterday. In any case it was to late to back out now, so he offered his report.

"Captain Uchiha Imura has stated that he is rounding up the police force as quickly as he can, and will send them out with your orders as soon as possible, but that it will take some time."

The Hokage folded his hands under his chin and raised an eyebrow at this statement. It was amazing how stupid and blind people thought he was simply because of his advanced age and his willingness to be compassionate and understanding rather than callous and militaristic. "And what is _your_ assessment of the situation at the Uchiha compound?" he asked the man in front of him.

The special-ops soldier was relieved for having made the right decision, although he made sure not to outwardly show it, and spoke frankly. "Imura _will_ send backup, eventually. The Uchiha are still keeping up appearances. However, he is not in any great hurry to do so. I thought it best to let you know, rather than hang around. Pressuring him may have made him even less likely to act, and as unreliable as the Uchiha may be right now, I assume we still definitely need them."

The Hokage gave a slight nod of acknowledgement to the masked man's initiative and then sighed and rubbed his forehead to ward off the encroaching headache. The unrest from the Uchiha clan was growing larger every day. This was only the latest move in a series of small but marginally noticeable acts of rebellion and sabotage and Sarutobi knew they would have to be overtly dealt with soon rather than carefully watched and mistrusted, which of course did nothing to bring them back into the community. Frankly though, having the Kyuubi at the center of this mess wouldn't encourage their cooperation and he really didn't have the patience or the time to deal with them right now.

"Fine. If they are going to choose to make this difficult for me, we'll have to give them a push in the right direction. Find Itachi. Tell him of the situation and that he is to check on the police force's progress. See if he can get Imura to move faster, but he is not to reveal his hand. As far as the Uchiha should be concerned, he is still one of their own."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," replied the man as he saluted and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Sarutobi blinked for a second and then rolled his eyes. It was something he was used to, but he found it somewhat amusing that everyone seemed to consider the window as a legitimate exit point. Granted it was faster than going out the door, especially today, and he really didn't mind it, but he just wished that it didn't give the council more reason to worry about his safety and push for closing the windows up or making them smaller or, heaven forbid, posting guards around them. The village leader enjoyed the unobstructed view of the outside world they granted him as it was usually the closest thing he could manage to being out doors all day.

Getting back to business, the Sandaime took out two scrolls of parchment and began writing up a draft for one of the two speeches he would have to give at some point today. The first was for the villagers of Konoha in an attempt to explain his reasoning and calm their fears while also reminding them who was in charge and the consequences for stepping over the line. Sarutobi preferred using words to settle any disagreements, but he was a shinobi and Hokage foremost and also not above using force to keep the people in line when it was called for.

The second was for the council. Hokage was _the_ most powerful position in the village and all orders came from him without question, no contest. Democracy wasn't exactly an option when your livelihood was based on war. But the law Sandaime was planning to enact would need some serious discussion as to what the consequences should be for those who would choose to ignore it. Too harsh a punishment and the citizens would feel tyrannized; too lenient and Sarutobi might as well not propose it at all. Reinforcement would be another difficulty all together. He would need the opinions of others on this matter, and that was just what the council was for.

Sandaime was halfway through the citizens' speech when the noise level from outside his door increased noticeably. The voices were muffled so it was impossible to tell what they were discussing, but it definitely sounded terse and argumentative. It only lasted a few moments before the harsh sound of the rat captain shouting "Enough!" came through. There was a bit more discussion before a masked head slipped through the entrance.

"Hokage-sama. I apologize for disturbing you, but it seems the situation needs your attention."

Sarutobi didn't hesitate to stand up and make his way over, surprised to see the scene that was presented to him as he stepped outside his office into the hallway.

"Ibiki," he said. Of all the people he would have expected to come make a complaint, the most promising interrogations officer of the decade was at the bottom of the list. And standing behind him was several of the heads of some of the noble families including the Akimichi—which meant the Nara and Yamanaka clans wouldn't be far behind—and the Inuzuka, who were as loyal to the master of Konoha as their counterparts were to them. Seeing Ibiki with the nobles was unusual as his parents had been civilians and had both died when he was young. The scarred young man had no apparent reason for leading the group of clan heads, who were more likely to follow one of their class ranking.

"Sir," began the interrogator, "much of the unrest in the village is starting to grow, even among the civilians. Some of the clans and others have wondered if perhaps there were a chance that civil war would break out. We came representing the people to ask you directly for your opinion."

So that explained it, the Hokage thought. Ibiki was representing those who did not belong to a family of high standing, just as the heads had come representing their clans. For the rag tag masses to choose Ibiki as their leader was an interesting development, and Sarutobi made a mental note to add it to his list of pros for promoting the man to captain of his own team of interrogators.

"I sincerely hope not," Sandaime replied to his query, "I assure you we are doing everything in our power to avoid this. Now please return to your homes gentlemen. I will be giving out an announcement as soon as possible, but until then it is very possible we will have to temporarily curfew the people. I do not want to have to arrest you for such a minor occurrence."

"Of course, Hokage-sama, sir. However, if you would please hear us out briefly. The men behind me and I have come to offer what assistance we can, not to cause you trouble."

"Assistance? Am I to take it then that none of you are concerned about the Kyuubi's presence?" the Hokage tested them.

"Of course we're concerned!" shouted the Hamanari clan head. The Hamanari's were one of the clans of lesser standing because of their only recent founding, but the burly shinobi had a confident voice that made it clear this did not make them a weaker family. "Allowing the monster fox to reside in this village, which it despises? In the body of one of the children of Konoha no less? How could we not worry?!"

"Then your reason for helping is ambiguous at best," the young tiger masked ANBU challenged, still ready for the fight he had been denied earlier in the day. His cat comrade prodded him discreetly with an elbow for speaking out of turn.

"Many of us have attempted to discuss this rationally, rather than lashing out in a destructive manner," the Akimichi head answered him, "and those of us here came to the conclusion that, while we may not agree with what has occurred, we are loyal to our Hokage, both the Sandaime and the Yondaime. They have been good to us in the past, and their leadership has been unquestionable. We trust that their reasons for their actions were in the best interest of Konoha and its people, and we will respect that."

"Then your assistance is much appreciated," responded the Hokage. "First, there have been a couple of injured that are being taken care of at the hospital under guard, but I want as many ANBU as I can get out in the streets. Ibiki, find a few jounin suitable to take their place, one per person." Ibiki nodded to a young man whom Sarutobi hadn't noticed and didn't recognize, someone not from the noble clans, but even though the ninja acknowledged the order he made no move. "The rest please follow me and we will work out what can be done."

"Sir," the young chuunin spoke up, clearly having waited patiently for his turn, "Some of those who oppose the Kyuubi's presence have begun to recognize the name Naruto. I mean, it's not exactly common and he lives around a lot of other ninja. I just thought you might want to move the kid somewhere else safe. The crowd was getting pretty big, and there was talk of attacking the house."

"It's a good thing they aren't home then," called a voice behind the group. Almost as one they turned to face the new comer, a green-haired ANBU with a badger mask. "Hokage-sama, if you'd like I could take you to him, otherwise I will rejoin my team."

"Lead the way," the Sandaime agreed, quickly changing his plans. "We have many important things to discuss."

* * *

**A/N**: The OC's aren't going to have a much bigger role than what you see here, they're just place holders that I got bored with giving the standard description for, so I gave them personalities. Unless people want to see them? Then maybe I'll consider it, but I want to get back to writing a story about Kakashi and Naruto. Remember, I want to hear any questions you guys have so I can clear things up either in the story or in a reply, and praise is always welcome too, so please REVIEW!!!! I like constructive criticism also, as long a it's not a flame.


	7. Retreat

**Rating**: PG-13 for some language

**Pairings**: None

**Spoilers**: Nothing that hasn't been spoiled in previous chapters

**A/N**: Oh man, where do I start? I guess to say thank you to anyone still reading this and sincerely apologize to anyone who had been hoping for an update much, much sooner than…geez has it really been four and a half years? As an explanation (not an excuse because there is really no way to excuse a four year hiatus) I had a lot of this chapter and the next already done, but there were parts that were driving me crazy, and then life got in the way in the form of college and job hunting. Really I shouldn't even be taking the time to update this now, but the new arc has gotten my creative desires going again and I wanted to get this up rather than leaving it to collect dust on both my hard drive and the hard copy I wrote. I honestly don't know if or when there will be a next chapter, although I would very much like for there to be. The ideas are there—they glare at me from their sticky note every time I accidentally click the wrong mouse button—but very often the time is not. This isn't a plug for reviews because that's not how my particular creative process works, but rather a warning to those who would rather not waste their time reading an unfinished story. Still, I want to thank everyone for their glowing reviews in the past. Without them this story and those written after would never have come into being.

And now, without further ado…

(Oh, wait, gotta put in a little more ado.)

**Disclaimer**: If I owned it, I wouldn't be taking extra courses just so I could get into _another_ two year program to finally get the job I _want_…

**Summary/Snippet**: The ANBU stalked down the middle of the street, clearly patrolling the area, but also staying visible as a warning to those nearby.

_Don't make trouble. We _are _watching._

* * *

Fire in Your Eyes

By Psychick

Chapter 7: Retreat

Kakashi lay on the hospital bed, his legs stretched out on top of the sheets and his back propped up by two pillows. Naruto was curled up against his side sleeping fitfully with the jounin's arm wrapped protectively around him. The toddler had been allowed to suck his thumb as his guardian and the ANBU slipped through back alleys and what ever covering they could find on their way to the medical center, but here in the hospital room the copy-nin had pulled the digit from the blonde's mouth. Even unconscious, however, he kept his tiny fist close to it.

"Stop squirming," scolded the nurse at his other side. Her hands gave off the soft green glow of healing chakra as she worked on his injury. Kakashi tried to do as she asked knowing it would go faster, but every time Naruto moved in his sleep the copy-nin shifted slightly to accommodate the new position and keep them both comfortable.

"Really, if you don't hold still, I swear I'll tell Hokage-sama that you can't go into the field for a week."

Kakashi looked at her with a raised eyebrow. The short woman sounded far too enthusiastic about the prospect of keeping someone prisoner here for a length of time. "Don't think I won't do it, young man. Better shinobi than you have hurt themselves worse because they wouldn't take the advice of a medic. Now _don't. Move._ I'm almost finished."

He complied wordlessly for a few moments, resisting the urge to push himself back up into a better sitting position as he had slid down over time, and absentmindedly stroked Naruto's hair as he listened for sounds outside their door. There were no windows, for which Kakashi was actually thankful for the first time in all his visits to the hospital, but someone could still get to them through the doorway. They didn't even have a guard of any sort, ANBU rank or lower, as the Badger had brought them here and then made his way to the Hokage's office tower soon after.

The small group had made their way relatively quickly to the hospital considering the fact that they had been forced to take the long way around. It was safer to keep Naruto out of the public eye for now anyway, but it seemed that word had finally gotten around about the terror of Konoha walking amongst them. It wasn't that panicked masses were running through the streets, in fact in a lot of places housewives out shipping were hurrying home looking around furtively as if the kyuubi were about to jump them any second or children were being herded inside much to their annoyance and confusion. A few times, when Kakashi and the green-haired special ops had no other choice but to cross a fairly deserted main road to get to another alley the copy-nin had spotted ANBU in plain sight. It wasn't hard. They stalked down the middle of the street, clearly patrolling the area, but also staying visible as a warning to those nearby.

_Don't make trouble. We _are _watching._

It worked too. Even the copy-nin couldn't have described how surreal it felt when, dashing across to safety, his gaze had caught on the figure of Konoha's elite, the bone white mask and the eyes that from his viewpoint looked like miniature black holes silently watching their progress in the few moments they were visible. Having all that intensity focused solely on him gave Kakashi chills. It wasn't that he feared them. The Yondaime had hinted once that his student had come very close-if not outright achieved- that level of training a few years before his death, although why he had not chosen the silver-haired shinobi to be among the special-ops ranks was a secret that had died with him the night the kyuubi was sealed.

What made it so surreal was that ANBU weren't meant to be visible that way. They were elite soldiers, men and women who kept their presence hidden in the field until they we're on top of their target, not police who walked among civilians with friendly smiles and a kind word to those innocent of crimes. Their presence, and the slight amount of killing intent they gave off that civilians would only attribute to an uneasy feeling on their part, was a testament to how out of hand the Sandaime was worried things would get.

Those fears seemed justified, too, they had found out as they got closer to downtown. Back in the more residential districts a few brave souls had limited themselves to heading towards a neighbors house to give fair warning and gossip about the terrible news, but the business district was in relative chaos. Several store owners had begun trying to convince their customers to head back home per request of the ANBU making rounds, and some had even managed to close down already but people still ran around stopping anyone they were acquainted with to ask if it was true, if they had heard anything new, and mention just how awful this whole thing was. They gasped and pointed as three more black ops shinobi met on a rooftop for a hurried discussion and disappeared in a blur of movement.

There were at least five separate occasions that the small group had needed to backtrack from their intended path because of mobs blocking the path. In order to make their way t their destination some of the pathways had needed to be crossed and in some situations the mass of shoppers and people passing through provided cover. Kakashi would slip into the crowd, muscles tense and his senses on high alert in case by some miracle someone happened to recognize him or the toddler in his arms. Naruto had his arms wrapped around his guardian's neck and the copy-nin placed a hand over the boy's head, mostly to keep the blonde's facial features from showing too much as the strange whisker-like markings he had had since infancy would make him stand out if his hair- and eye-coloring didn't do the trick. For the first time in his entire life Kakashi considered genetics as somewhat of a curse rather than something to be proud of.

As the two crossed the street alone their masked companion would move farther up or down the street alone their masked companion would move further up or down the street to cross separately from them as his distinctive outfit was guaranteed to attract attention even with so many others like it out and about. The copy-nin would wait for the other man to rejoin them and they would dash off again in the direction of the tower.

It was the mobs that presented the biggest difficulty. The Phoenix wasn't the only bar in town and it wasn't just shinobi who were outraged enough by the news to act on it. They were able to avoid a few, but at least two had broken out into confrontation with the masked operatives trying to get them to disperse and neither shinobi was daring enough, or suicidal, to think they could pass even one of the groups without attaining some recognition. Kakashi's moderate fame from a few years before alone would make him somewhat recognizable by itself. The fact that he had essentially disappeared from shinobi society around the time of the kyuubi's defeat would be cause for further suspicion.

The jounin and ANBU would head farther into the village before making their way back around and came very close to reaching the tower when they found themselves unable to move forward. A larger crowd than any they had come across before stood not far off from the entrance, and the placement of surrounding buildings made it so that they would be forced into the open to reach it.

"Damn," the green-haired man swore as he tried to consider what options they had. "Where the hell are the Uchiha?"

"This is starting to really piss me off," Kakashi complained in a quiet voice. "He's not even _two years old_. How many ninja do they think they need to take him down?"

"You know as well as I do how strong the monster was. They're just worried a few men won't be able to take the kyuubi out for good," replied the Badger, his voice just as low.

The copy-nin glared, "Naruto is _not_ the kyuubi." The toddler's head perked up at the mention of his name. "He's just as human as any of them. The seal _traps_ the fox inside his body. It doesn't turn him into one. And before you say anything, I know they see things differently because I take care of him and they just want to be done with the fox. That doesn't mean I have to like it any more than they feel like understanding it."

Naruto started squirming and the jounin shifted his grip as the toddler's curiosity got the better of him. He leaned across Kakashi to get a better look at the strange group of people who were shouting.

The ANBU looked at the jounin and shrugged, "I won't argue with you. But please, stop acting like I'm the enemy.

The teen was silent for a moment before ducking his head slightly. "Yeah. Sorry. So do you have any ideas?"

"I think we're just going to have to go for it. We can move around behind that building, it'll bring us as close as possible to the entrance without actually stepping into the open. If we run for it, we'll make it even if they spot us." He moved as if to implement this plan, but Kakashi stayed in his spot as he contemplated the idea.

"No," he finally said as the ANBU turned to look at him. "It's too much of a risk."

"_Everything's_ a risk at this point," he was told with exasperation.

"Not to us," the copy-nin answered. "I have no doubt we'll make it if we go your way. But on the off-chance they do realize who we are I don't think any of them are thinking rationally enough to realize that coming after us would mean attacking the tower. That's treason against the Hokage, and Sandaime-sama will be forced to act on that to keep control. With the right set of circumstances it could spark the war that no one wants."

"That's a lot of 'if's,'" said the ANBU skeptically.

"But it's still a possibility that we absolutely want to avoid," Kakashi pointed out.

"You have a better idea?"

The jounin didn't say anything for a moment as he considered the question. Naruto squirmed some more and Kakashi about lost his grip on the toddler. He tried switching the boy to the other side but his injury protested and he was forced to set the blonde down on his own feet for a moment. It was ironic, he thought, that his ribs kept getting broken every time something involving the kyuubi occurred. He'd have to get that fixed as soon as—

"The hospital," he said with sudden realization.

Kakashi couldn't see the expression under the mask, but the voice sounded skeptical. "That's within the district, but still pretty far from here. And we're trying to get you both _to_ the Hokage, not farther away from him."

"That's just it," the teen answered as he picked his blonde charge up again keeping him away from the injury. Naruto was clearly unhappy with this as he tried to clamber across Kakashi's body again, but the copy-nin had a firmer grip on him to prevent that. "Everyone is expecting us to take him to Sandaime-sama or at least somewhere hidden so that he's protected. No one would be expecting us to take Naruto to the medical center _before_ they managed to injure him. Not that we'd let them," he was quick to add, "but it's hiding I plain sight. And I could get my side looked at probably, assuming we can find someone to trust. Killing two birds with one stone."

The black-ops shinobi weighed the two options in his mind. As far as ideas went it made sense, but it would take even more time getting there and that was assuming they didn't run into the same problem they faced now. If they did the hospital would become a disadvantage in that it didn't guarantee them any allies were they to be spotted on their way in. On the other hand, Hatake did have a point about the tower, even if the risk was relatively small. And they couldn't stand around forever waiting for the crowd to disperse. The two options seemed fairly equal and the tower had the added bonus of giving them sanctuary under the Hokage. He was about to argue this with the younger man when Naruto made the whole thing a moot point.

The toddler had been comforted by being in the familiar presence of his guardian and with his new found confidence felt it very important to point out the strange sight before him that the two adults were—incredibly—managing to ignore. The blonde had tried observing the crowd for a while to see what was so interesting that all these people would stand in one spot, but he couldn't see anything that looked like it would be fun and Kakashi wasn't letting him get a closer look. Clearly the situation would have to be pointed out to his guardian and explained.

Kakashi, for his part, knew they were in trouble the moment Naruto turned his big blue eyes toward him but was too late to stop the unintelligible babble that spilled out of the toddler's mouth as he pointed at the crowd. In true Naruto style the mashed together syllables were offered up loudly, and the echo bounced clearly off the walls.

"Naruto, quiet!" the copy-nin hissed, placing a hand over the boy's mouth. Naruto gave a startled look at being reprimanded so harshly and tried to protest the offending extremity by reaching up to pull it off.

The ANBU watched from around the corner of the building they were hiding behind, hoping the sound would go unnoticed with all the shouting coming from the crowd but unfortunately a vested ninja standing at the edge of the mob hadn't been as caught up in the emotion and anger and the residual echo caught his attention. His head twisted around, a look of curiosity on his face as he broke away from the others to investigate on his own.

"Move back," warned the ANBU just as Kakashi managed to convince the one-year-old to quiet down. The jounin took a few steps away and pulled out a kunai from his pouch in case things got messy, but he needn't have worried. Whatever the man was expecting it certainly wasn't a full-fledged ANBU and the masked soldier knocked their fellow villager out cold in less than a second.

"No choice now," said Kakashi, "If any of his friends notice he's missing before we get around there's no way we'll escape attention."

"Hang on a sec," the green-haired man said as he kneeled down next to the unconscious shinobi. He quickly reached out and picked apart the knot on the man's bandana. Not his hitai-ate—he wore that around his neck—but the regular cloth covering his head.

"Here," the Badger threw it at Kakashi. "We should have done this a while ago. The kid's hair stands out too much."

"Right," the jounin caught the cloth mid-air and handed it to Naruto for the moment, since he was reaching for it anyway. The curious one-year-old started exploring the new item. "I'll do it once we get away."

The two men took off at a quick pace, the Badger leading with Kakashi not far behind, just as a women commented on her friend's disappearance to those around her.

* * *

Once they reached the hospital, infiltration was easy. Getting through a side entrance that was rarely used because of it's inconvenient positioning was child's play to the ANBU and once inside he led his companions up a flight of stairs at the end of the hallway so that they wouldn't have to pass the nurses station going up the main stairwell. The green haired man seemed to be moving with a purpose and Kakashi trusted the man since he had no better plan then to randomly choose a floor. After heading up three flights the other man stopped and motioned for the copy-nin to do the same. The teen nodded his assent and stopped just short of the landing, three steps down and still hidden by the wall. When no one appeared to be making their way down the hall the masked man slipped out for a few seconds and then returned.

"C'mon, there's an empty room, middle of the hallway, left side. You can wait there."

They moved quickly, unnoticed by the nurses who were out of sight around the corner, gathered at the desk in the lobby gossiping about someone's mother-in-law from the sound of it. Apparently news of the Kyuubi hadn't reached everyone just yet. Once inside the room Kakashi headed towards the bed in the center of the room as the ANBU closed the door behind them and watched the jounin's movements. The teen placed Naruto down on the sheets and though he hid it well there was just a hint of relief in not having to carry the blonde's weight anymore in the way he stood. For his part, once he had determined that his guardian was not going anywhere, the boy crawled from the edge of the bed towards the cheap pillow at the top and started pulling at the covers.

Kakashi sighed, "Damn, I almost forgot. And he's probably twice as exhausted from the stress."

"Let him sleep. As long as we're careful you should be safe. And if he's unconscious there's less of a chance he'll give your position away again."

The copy-nin grimaced, forced to agree with the man out of experience. Even in the limited version of the academy's curriculum that he had gotten—a grand total of a year and a half—the phrase 'expect the unexpected' had been routinely force fed to him as enemies very rarely did what you anticipated in the first few moments of battle. Yet no one had rammed the idea home more than the little bundle of mischief put under Kakashi's care. He had begun to suspect that part of the problem was his own vastly different definition of childhood and how much he had been forced to grow up. Yet he had never even thought of imposing such regulation and discipline on Sensei's son, especially with the lack of war-time status making such things unnecessary. He liked seeing the too-wide grin on the boy's face and the way his eyes sparkled when he was happy. Crushing that out of him seemed cruel.

Of course, the consequence of that was being unable to trust that Naruto would do what the silver-haired teen asked of him now when it would have been much appreciated. The only way to ensure that the blonde would be both quiet and unable to escape from Kakashi's sight was to let the toddler sleep.

"I'll be right back," the Badger informed the jounin, "I want to see if I can find you a healer." Kakashi nodded to show he had heard. He brought the hospital sheets overtop Naruto as his charge reached out both hands to help and tucked the boy in. The toddler wriggled around trying to get comfortable for a moment before closing his eyes. Kakashi sat on the edge of the bed and watched for the inevitable. He wasn't going anywhere now, but even if they were home he'd have waited for a few moments by the futon. A few months ago the blonde had started to resist his nap-time despite how much they both needed it sometimes. After a week or two of temper tantrums Naruto had finally given in to his fate.

Or at least he pretended to. Kakashi had been stunned after coming out from his father's old study, looking at the veritable library of scrolls for ten minutes, only to discover the one-year old happily playing with his toys in the living room. The copy-nin had dragged his charge back amid much kicking and screaming, but as soon as the blonde

S head hit the pillow he clamed down and closed his eyes. The jounin was immediately suspicious, and rightly so, but he wanted to see just what Naruto would do. Sure enough about thirty seconds after he slipped out the bedroom door, it slowly slid back open and Naruto's head popped out. His eyes had widened at the sight of his guardian standing just outside, leaning against the wall, arms folded and he quickly toddled back to the futon and climbed back in as if pretending it had never happened would make it so.

Kakashi should have been upset that Naruto wasn't doing as he was told, he thought at the time, but the sight had been so…adorable was the only word he could come up with, and so unexpected, and so ninja-like for someone who had never had a single lesson in deception that the copy-nin had actually laughed. It wasn't an out-of-control laugh, or even very loud, but it was very definitely a laugh and that was something he hadn't done since before his father's death. The thought made him bittersweet, but his mood was uplifted enough that he had let Naruto get away with it that afternoon.

Whether that had been a mistake or not Kakashi couldn't say, but since then the young boy never let a chance slip by, and the copy-nin had to stay by his side until he was sure the blonde was actually asleep. Even now he waited as Naruto carefully opened one eye to check that he was still being watched. When it was obvious his guardian was still there, instead of looking guilty, he gave a toothy grin. Kakashi resisted the urge to roll his eyes but couldn't keep ta small smile, hidden behind his own cloth mask off his face.

"Go to sleep, you little trickster," he carefully admonished and once more the boy closed his eyes. In a way, it was good to see the familiar routine as it meant that some of Naruto's confidence had returned, but the jounin noted that he wasn't talking again and he hadn't even complained about being hungry, even though it was getting to be around lunch time. That either meant he was too scared to say much, or his flight/fight system was still kicking in. Neither option was appealing.

A knock sounded on the door and Naruto's eyes flew open. It was probably the ANBU, but to be on the safe side Kakashi put his finger to his lips and waited for Naruto to copy the movement to show he understood before pulling out a kunai and carefully opening the door just slightly.

"It's me," said the special-ops soldier and the copy-nin quickly stepped aside and let both him and the older woman behind him in.

"Friend of yours?"

"Sort of," came the answer, although the man didn't elaborate anymore than that and from the look on the woman's face 'sort of friends' was not how she would have described them. Kakashi didn't press for more information. ANBU identities were kept secret for a reason, and even revealing himself to someone he trusted was a breach of security that would probably require massive amounts of paperwork for the black ops shinobi.

"Does she know?" he asked instead.

"I do now," answered the woman. "Still can't believe the news hadn't reached our department, although I heard there were some injuries from fights inside the village. These things happen though, I suppose. And I'll tell you what I told my… 'friend' here. I'm not happy about this. That thing has caused us too many problems for me to ever be happy with having it even with in the country. But I've promised myself to preserve as much life as I can since leaving the field and that includes that little boy. So I'll do what I've been asked but that's it. No more."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed suspiciously and he took a few steps back towards the bed.

The ANBU sighed, "Look Hatake-san. I trust her, more than any doctor in this hospital, and she's got the experience to heal you without any help. She's given me her word that she won't let anyone know what's going on and that's the best we'll be able to do in this situation. Do you agree or not?"

"Fine," The copy-nin agreed, "But I stay between her and Naruto at all times."

"That's awfully suspicious of you," commented the nurse.

"I'm not happy with it either, but I don't see that I have much of a choice."

The older woman's expression softened into something more understanding. "You have a point. All right, I agree to your terms."

The green-haired man left after they were settled. That had been almost ten minutes ago and being unencumbered by the need for secrecy meant he should have been well on his way back with the Hokage.

The room continued in silence except for the steady hum of the nurses healing chakra as Kakashi continued to try and comply with the nurse's wish for stillness. He lost the inhibition however when Naruto began whimpering in his sleep.

"Hatake-san!" the older woman cried in exasperation as she threw her hands up. The copy-nin ignored her as he sat up to check on the one-year-old. His earlier compliance had actually had little to do with her threat of being taken out of the field on account of the fact that he hadn't taken on a mission since Naruto's arrival, and his concern that the young boy would wake up outweighed her desires. Pain from a mostly healed injury was easily ignored. The blonde's cries after waking from a nightmare, not so much. And although such an occurrence was infrequent, it was near impossible to get the toddler back to sleep. Kakashi was hoping to keep Naruto quiet as long as possible, since he wasn't sure when—or if—they would get another chance to settle down today.

He had stopped just short of thinking about worst case scenarios—the copy-nin was hoping Hokage-sama would have calmed things down enough that they wouldn't have to leave the village—but Shikaku would have been justified in giving him another lecture on rookie mistakes if it weren't at least in the back of his mind.

Just as he had finished double-checking that Naruto wasn't about to wake up, the chakra signature of someone caught Kakashi's attention, or rather two somesones, just outside the door. He tensed and looked up the nurse mirroring the action as she, too, felt the presence, but the shinobi were making no attempt to hide their signatures and after a moment the silver-haired teen recognized the most obvious one.

"Your injury isn't too severe I hope," the Sandaime asked once he and the Badger ANBU entered with Kakashi's permission.

"Not anymore," he answered, gesturing to the nurse, "She's fixed me up for the most part."

The petite woman frowned with her hands on her hips, "I'd be _done_ by now if you had just listened to me and held still. Hokage-sama, I swear, young people just never _listen_ these days. I don't know _what_ they teach at the academy anymore, but it certainly has nothing to do with following a medic's advice. You know I had three of my patients return this week? Three! A wonderful young lady and two very intelligent men who I _know_ are smarter than that but the moment the step in these doors it's lie they think we're here to just stand around and look pretty. Gods forbid they ever do what they're _told_ and—"

The masked man coughed not-so-subtlety and the nurse cut herself off mid-rant, as the Hokage gave a tight smile.

"Forgive me, sir," she apologized, "It will only be a few more moments to finish up and then I'll be out of you hair."

"That's quite alright, my dear. Take your time," the aged man replied in a voice that clearly implied that, actually, they really didn't have all the time in the world, but he was still trying to be polite.

Once the nurse finished up, with a quick warning not to do anything too serious and a slightly wary glance towards Naruto that did nothing to endear her to Kakashi, they got down to business.

"How bad is the situation?" the jounin asked.

"Not good," admitted the Sandaime, needing to be frank with the boy, "For a problem of this size we've managed to keep things fairly under control, but the possibility of an insurrection is still plausible at this point. If we can prevent that then we stand a chance of being able to keep Naruto within the village. I don't think it unwise to warn you for the possibility of leaving at a moment's notice."

Kakashi nodded with a grimace. He had suspected as much but the idea of fleeing was not one he relished. Konoha wasn't just his home, it was his safe haven. There was nowhere else in the world he felt as comfortable as he did here, even with the painful memories that lingered. At least here he didn't have to consciously watch his back, worrying that a ninja from an enemy village would attack him based solely on the fact that his hitai-ate bore the image of a leaf. Not that he would be able to wear it if they did have to leave. It was too conspicuous and would make it too easy for anyone from here to find him and Naruto.

Even besides that, it seemed wrong to take the boy away from Konoha. The village was where his father had grown up, where his parents had intended to raise him. Naruto's father had been the Hokage for goodness sake and if the kind of legacy he had left behind—not the Kyuubi, but rather one of the strongest and yet most peaceful hidden villages in all of the Five Great Nations—if that wasn't the kind of legacy you would want your children to experience, then Kakashi was more clueless about this whole kid thing than he had thought.

Safety came first however and if living elsewhere in the Fire country was what it took to keep Naruto safe, then the copy-nin would be the first to advocate it. He'd just have to ensure that he taught the toddler everything he knew.

The brief realization that he would be leaving Rin behind flitted across the background of his mind, but he pushed away the uncomfortable feeling in his gut after a second's contemplation. Despite his promise to Obito, Rin had been fending for herself quite well for over a year. In fact, with the absence of any international wars and monster demon spirits, Rin had enough free time to significantly increase her skills as a med-nin and otherwise, a fact she had demonstrated two months ago. According to one of the few rumors Kakashi happened to catch she had helped her commander drag the other half of their ANBU team out of a compromised mission and while the two had needed serious medical attention, they were alive to get it because of Rin. She hadn't come over for one of her relatively infrequent visits lately, so Kakashi hadn't been able to confirm the story, but to be honest he wouldn't have put it past her. Time, distance, and a little more maturity had given him the perspective to see just what kind of shinobi his former teammate was. He had grudgingly begun to admit to himself that their falling out two years ago was still his fault, but for different reasons than he had originally assumed.

Kakashi and Sarutobi continued to discuss other points of interest, such as a brief overview of what had occurred at the secret gathering and who had been behind it, how Sarutobi was dealing with the situation and how long the jounin and his charge would have to stay below the radar. The Hokage made it clear that they would be concealed as much as possible for at least a week after today when he addressed the people and only then would anyone be likely to make a decision on how safe it was to stay within the village limits.

"Do you have a specific place in mind about where we should stay?" the copy-nin asked his superior. Their current home was out of the question, but Kakashi didn't exactly have any safe-houses on hand.

Sarutobi gave the boy a long look, trying to gauge his reaction before he gave his suggestion. The Hokage was fairly certain Kakashi would reject it but whether he did so right away would determine how much the older man would try to insist on it. "How would you feel about staying with Rin?"

Kakashi gave the village leader a sharp look. He could figure out the old man's intentions easily enough, and his immediate reaction was to reject the idea, just as he had rejected Rin giving Naruto a name, to keep her from getting involved and to keep her safe, but instead he bit back the words on the tip of his tongue and considered the idea.

It was a while before he said anything and Sarutobi almost thought he would have to repeat the question when the young man answered, shaking his head.

"No. I don't want her to get involved in this."

"You're still trying to protect her," the Hokage responded sharply. "Kakashi, I understand your reasons. Believe me, I do. But you need to understand that your former teammate is a well-trained jounin, not an incompetent academy student, and she no longer needs your constant undivided protection, if she ever did. Your reluctance to work in an otherwise perfectly functional team is becoming increasingly inconvenient to work around. We haven't much choice in the matter at hand. If you think you shouldn't be stationed in her home, I'm going to need a much better reason than your desire to keep a friend safe."

In all honesty, Sarutobi was expecting something of an outburst, an argument that he would have to quash with his authority. His interaction with Kakashi had been limited to a brief report once a month for the first six months of Naruto's life and then, as it became clear that the Kyuubi's resistance was diminishing in strength and frequency, once every two or three months at the copy-nin's discretion. The Hokage hadn't seen much of a change in the teen in the few minutes they met, the jounin having delivered the reports with the same clinical efficiency he would have used for an assassination or a raid, and since Naruto himself had seemed happy enough each time they met, Sarutobi had only briefly questioned Rin once after one of her visits to the Hatake household as a precaution and though nothing of it. But instead of the anger or frustration the silver-haired teen might have shown two years ago in regards to this subject, Kakashi merely nodded his consent to Sarutobi's command and began his explanation.

"Rin is already connected to myself and Sensei. You said you wanted to keep attention off the Yondaime as much as possible, but if you put his two surviving students together with his son and the news spreads that's going to give the people something to gossip about. Anyone who didn't know Naruto's heritage before will certainly start putting two and two together."

The teen held his breath and prayed that his answer was solid enough that the Hokage would accept it. It wasn't that he was lying to the Hokage, or giving the first answer that popped into his head. Naruto's safety was too important to him to reject any help and security he could get outright, and Rin was a reasonable option. Weighing pros and cons, their connection was really the only reason he could see for rejecting the idea. The copy-nin wasn't honestly sure though that he wasn't still being biased towards the woman. Everyone in the room knew he was close enough to those involved that making a completely rational decision was probably impossible even for the strictest of shinobi, and if the Sandaime were to tell him he was making unreasonable conclusions, that no outsider would think twice about their connection, he would accept the orders given to him. Reluctantly, sure, and there was the chance that he'd still unconsciously try to keep Rin away from them, but he would accept the order. So he waited for Sandaime's decision doing his best to hold the old man's gaze with his own steady, one-eyed version.

To his relief the Sandaime nodded his head in agreement. "A valid point, and my main concern also. Very well, I'll have something else arranged by tonight. In the mean time ANBU guards will take you to a safe house. I don't want my presence here to compromise your safety. If you'll excuse me…"

Sandaime headed towards the door, not bothering to wait for a salute from the silver-haired ninja. Kakashi, however, had one last question.

"Sir…Are we really doing the right thing? Keeping him here, I mean."

Sarutobi was a little surprised that the younger shinobi was having second thoughts, but perhaps he shouldn't have been. This was, after all, coming from a man who was still struggling with his own identity, his place in the world.

The Sandaime nodded. "It's a risk certainly. But I believe it's one well worth taking, yes?"

The Hokage could see the moment that Kakashi's resolve solidified and without another word swept out the door to see if his own resolve would satisfy the village.


	8. Strategy

**Rating**: PG-13 for some language

**Pairings**: None

**Spoilers**: Nothing that hasn't been spoiled in previous chapters

**Disclaimer**: Still got nada

**Summary/Snippet**: The speech had generally gone over well with the people but before the Sandaime had made his announcement a small contingent had taken it upon themselves to express the feelings of the villagers upon Kakashi's house.

* * *

Fire in Your Eyes

By Psychick

Chapter 8: Strategy

_Citizens of Konoha_

_In the past 24 hours many of you have become aware of rumors that remind us of the horrors from a year and a half ago. Such a tragedy as the appearance of the Kyuubi can do little else but bring worry, fear, and anger to the fore-front of our memories as the loss of so many of our comrades and citizens was a hard one to bear. We remember their sacrifices with honor and pride as their deaths were fitting of shinobi, protecting the village and the people that they loved, entrusting that their own will of fire would burn bright in those they left behind. We also remember them with grief as bonds so broken can never be re-forged in their entirety, though we may create new ones._

_Therefore, out of respect for those lost, I, your Hokage, will not insult you by denying that which you have already heard, nor will I deny the truth that this was kept secret. On the night of the Kyuubi attack, to prevent the village from total annihilation, that creature was captured and sealed inside the body of a young infant, one Uzumaki Naruto. Furthermore, he has been kept within the village limits and raised much as your own children have. His identity, and indeed the very knowledge that he held the Kyuubi within him, was only known to a select few. Many have questioned this decision since hearing of it, citing the risk I have chosen to take by allowing the Kyuubi to live among us and that it may bring disaster once again to our village. However, I implore you to understand both my own reasoning as well as the Yondaime's, for it was the former Hokage's sacrifice while sealing the demon away that saved our village. This boy, this child, is one of your own- a rightful citizen of Konoha. I hid his identity and the existence of the Kyuubi so that he, too, may inherit the will of fire that those who came before him have passed down and live as normal a life as possible. That he may grow to love and cherish the bonds he makes with his comrades, just as you and your children have learned and will learn, and that he will choose to protect this village by his own volition rather than by a fate which has been forced upon him._

_With this in mind, the council and I have reached a decision. Henceforth, by military law and the power of the Hokage, no citizen of Konoha—shinobi or otherwise—shall reveal to any persons within the village of Konoha, the Land of Fire, other nations or villages, allied or otherwise, who do not have prior knowledge concerning the identity or existence of the host of the Kyuubi who that host is. This includes, but is not limited to, the host himself. Furthermore, the punishment for any who choose to disregard the new legislation shall be discussed by the council and decided on by the Hokage. The minimum sentence for those who disobey shall begin at a lifetime prison sentence, with the maximum punishment including the death penalty, as well as a fine from 10,000 to 400,000 yen for those to whom the information is revealed._

_Despite this ruling it is my greatest desire that the council and myself never need act on this punishment. I ask, as your leader and one who has worked tirelessly to keep this village and this country safe, that you trust in our decision._

* * *

Naruto squirmed in Kakashi's arms as he played with the collar of the copy-nin's jounin vest in one hand and held onto his cup full of milk loosely in the other. Occasionally he would swing it up to take a sip and in the process would nearly clobber his guardian, but if his continuous babbling was any indication he didn't seem to notice the danger he was putting the copy-nin in. Kakashi couldn't make heads or tales of what the blond seemed to be discussing but it appeared that buildings were the main topic as Naruto pointed to several as they passed. The silver-haired jounin would make various noises of agreement and even asked, "Is that so?" once or twice. Naruto, willing to acknowledge his valiant attempts to follow the conversation, would direct the jounin's attention somewhere else with a wild hand gesture that forced the adult to duck.

The toddler's exuberance came as a relief to Kakashi. It had been a week since the Hokage's speech and the old man had only just decided that things were calm enough to allow Naruto to venture out of confinement, which was not something the blond dealt well with. Once he came out of his slightly unnerving quiet stage, during which Kakashi constantly worried that something psychological and irreversible had happened, he began throwing tantrums when he wasn't allowed outside. Despite this he had become clingy and even though the apartment wasn't very big if Kakashi left his side for more than a few minutes the water works would start up. The teen had been at his wits end trying to come up with ways to distract the toddler and at the same time find ways for his own self to relax. The extra guard, who was rotated constantly and varied between ANBU and others the Hokage trusted from the clans who had offered their services, was sometimes helpful in offering advice or giving the Sharingan user a break, but more often than not Naruto was unhappy and as the week wore on even the others' often limited pool of suggestions dried up.

Finally word had come that the two could wander out. Kakashi had been glad to hear the news, but it created a whole new set of problems. Whereas before he wouldn't have thought twice about stepping outside the door, that morning he had relentlessly grilled the poor Hyuuga jounin on the state of the village. He debated on whether he should take a bag out of things he might need for Naruto or whether it would become unwanted and cumbersome if some infuriated villager decided that an attempt at murder was worth more than their own freedom. He had already mentally mapped out all of Konoha's clan compounds and which ones the Hokage had said could be somewhat trusted, which hadn't made it clear whose side they were on and which could definitely be a threat. That severely limited his options of where he could go and in the end he decided not to stay out too long, not to take a bag and to check on the state of the old house.

The short trip was turning out to be more informative than the Hyuuga could have ever been. Things seemed fairly normal, as most damage had been largely prevented or quickly fixed, and people were going about their business as if they had never been infuriated or frightened out of their minds. There were even a few kids running around unattended here and there. As long as they went unrecognized, people didn't give Kakashi or Naruto a second glance.

It was when the other passing pedestrians did recognize one of the two that the difference between 'before' and 'after' became clear. Several people actually stopped once they spotted the small makeshift family and spun around to quickly walk away and turn down a different street. A few mothers called their children over and pulled them close with a glare in Kakashi's direction, and other people turned towards those nearby and hissed a few words in their ear. Fortunately, keeping your distance seemed to be the thing to do.

Naruto noticed none of this, happily oblivious to the chaos he was causing around him as he continued his Grand Tour of Konoha (trademarked).

"Ta! Ta!" he insisted as he pushed against Kakashi's shoulder.

"Okay, okay, you want to get down. I get it," his guardian answered as he swung the almost-two-year-old around and set him on his feet. He held onto the hand not busy with the sippy cup, although Naruto tried to pull away at first until the teen convinced him it wasn't going to happen. Kakashi's height made it a bit of a stretch for the blond, so he leaned over just enough to look completely awkward and they continued to their destination at a much slower pace.

Kakashi's original assessment of thinking about their home as "the old house" turned out to be accurate. Even from a short distance it was obvious there was a lot of damage, but he had expected it from what Hokage-sama had told him a few days before. The speech had generally gone over well with the people, at least in the sense that most of them were willing to accept the word and law of the leader and strongest shinobi in Konoha, but before the Sandaime had made his announcement a small contingent had taken it upon themselves to express the feelings of the villagers upon Kakashi's house. Unfortunately, though the small uprising had been dealt with as quickly as possible, the rather organized nature of the whole event suggested that the vandals had been influenced by possible Root members and therefore meant it had largely been an attempt by Danzo to get his coup off the ground.

The coup may have been unsuccessful, but the goal of the crowd that the one-armed man had used certainly had been achieved. A small explosive had been used on the north side of the building and a small rather burnt pile of wooden planks was gathered in the front yard. All the windows were broken, the door hung halfway off it's hinges and what portions of the roof had survived the blast seemed to sag down. Graffiti littered the walls as well, although Kakashi suspected that part of the vandalism had come later from the younger citizens of Konoha. The messages and drawings painted along the house were all different, but the main theme could be best summarized as, "Get the fuck out."

Kakashi sighed as Naruto pulled him towards the entrance of their home. He had just finished repairing the last of the damage from the Kyuubi a few months ago too. They stepped inside and, with a quick once over to make sure it was relatively safe, the copy-nin let the blond go free to roam around.

"Don't go outside," he warned, "Stay in here." He pointed around what used to be their living room to make himself clear to the toddler, but Naruto seemed more interested in the toys scattered about on the floor than in paying attention. He debated on whether it was a good idea to just leave the kid there before deciding that he would just keep a very careful ear out as he moved about the house.

They actually hadn't lost too much from inside the house. Most of their essentials had been brought to the small apartment by others and Kakashi had made sure to ask for a good chunk of it as he hadn't been sure when they would be getting out and everyone had been good natured enough to comply. The clothes they had left here had gone largely unnoticed and untouched, although to his annoyance someone had raided his stores of Kunai, shuriken, wire, tags and the like kept in his closet. He hadn't bothered to ask for the food in the kitchen as there had been a store only a block away from where they were staying and most of it, all of the non-perishable stuff any way, was still usable. The table and chairs were still intact, although they had been knocked over and the silver-haired teen wondered about getting them moved to their new home, wherever that would be. Then he sighed again at the thought of moving.

"Naruto," he poked his head into the living room, "Do you want a snack?"

The blonde perked up at the mention of food. "Kaka!" he said, motioning a little with his still-pudgy hands, which in this context meant he was in the mood for crackers. His guardian nodded and set about filling a small bowl for the boy to eat while he spent time exploring a little more.

It wasn't that he couldn't see how completely unsalvageable the house was going to be, at least on the budget he had now, but he was loathe to give it up because he had thought he would always live in the home the Hatake family owned. Not the small two person family that had almost been forced on him, but the one which, a _very_ long time ago, had held three people before his mother died from the flu that had gotten out of control because she didn't take care of herself when he was three and his father…

So there were a few bad memories associated with the place, but there were a few half-memories and blurred images of a happier time that he was afraid he'd lose all together with time and distance from their origin. Even after the Kyuubi had appeared he had stretched what savings he had to repair the place so he and Naruto could continue to live there and had been relieved when it turned out he had gotten lucky with a lot less damage than he had thought. But even just looking at the outside of the house made it obvious that even if he dipped into the allowance he got for Naruto a little, he definitely didn't have enough money to bring the place up to a livable condition anytime soon. The only thing he could do was sell it and buy, or more likely rent, a new place.

Of course, that was even assuming he could sell the dump it had become. Even in a place like Konoha where newcomers were very rare when they could get a visa at all, someone was always getting married or growing old enough to buy their own place, so finding someone who needed it would not be a problem. It was finding someone who could then afford to fix the place back up and now, he thought with a grimace, someone who would be willing to live in the former residency of the demon fox. If he thought he could get someone else to sell it in his place he probably would have, but the words "Die bastard fox" splashed in dark red across the front of the house was sort of a dead give away. He might even have to just cut his losses and forget about the whole idea, he thought, but he was hoping for the extra money to offset the cost of the new place.

His frustration with the whole thing did not lessen as he continued walking through the house. The toys Naruto was playing with were largely broken beyond repair and a few times the blonde approach Kakashi in the hopes that he might be able to fix it only to look sadly at the damaged piece when the teen had to toss I in a garbage bag and try to find something else to play with. Eventually the toddler settled on his set of blacks, which the jounin managed to bring together from their scattered positions around the room. Kakashi was thankful that the blonde's favorite toy was still intact, although building blocks were rather indestructible, because the rising sense of guilt every time he had to trash another toy was making it hard to look the blonde in the eye.

Naruto's room was ruined too. The futon was ripped to shreds, the sliding door was in pieces as if someone had kicked it in, the small collection of books that had been kept in here torn open, pages scattered everywhere, and even more graffiti. Kakashi clenched his fists and closed his eyes to the death threats splashed along the walls. The anger he felt at the fact that someone wanted to hurt Naruto flashed up inside him and sent his heart racing. He took a moment to breath, to slow the pounding in his chest.

After a year and a half of taking care of sensei's son, Kakashi had mostly learned how to deal with his feelings of guilt. He had made mistakes all the time while taking care of the boy. On top of that Naruto was definitely not a child to sit around and do nothing and his curiosity often got the better of him in ways that were potentially harmful, but necessary to his pursuit of education. Kakashi couldn't hover over the toddler every time he tried to walk to make sure the boy didn't fall over, Yoshino-san had pointed out. It was going to happen until Naruto built up some muscle and coordination. The most they could do would be to make sure there was nothing too dangerous at Naruto's level and patch up the little injuries as they happened.

At first it had done nothing to ease the panic he felt when his guilt surfaced. He started catching himself in a vicious circle—feeling guilt for not being mindful of every action Naruto took or of finding out he hadn't taken care of the boy properly; then immediately suppressing the emotion in an attempt to keep himself in control and not make more mistakes; then feeling guilty for reacting so coldly to Naruto, the memory of the first time he held the infant and nearly dropped him always at the forefront of his mind. Sometimes he could wrestle himself out of the emotional feedback loop, but for the times when he didn't the Naras became a great support.

It shouldn't have come as much of a surprise as it did, but Shikaku was the best at knocking some sense into the younger man. His history as a shinobi, as well as—to Kakashi's surprise- a level of intellect far beyond anyone the jounin had known contributed to Shikaku's own insecurities about raising a child. The copy ninja had the distinct impression that the older jounin was far better adjusted than he, despite being raised during a period of just as much turmoil as Kakashi, but the shadow ninja eventually admitted to some concern that he overanalyzed everything Shikamaru did for the potential of its lethality.

"How do you make yourself stop?" Kakashi had asked.

Shikaku had grinned. "Counteraction. When I can't take the images anymore, I pick the kid up and bring him out to do the most mindless activity I could think of. You'd be amazed how fascinating clouds can be when you focus hard enough. Works wonders for calming him down, too."

Kakashi hadn't been able to find his own method of counteraction, but gradually the silver-haired teen had come to face the fact that he didn't have to take responsibility every time Naruto's block towers fell into the boy's lap or he tripped on his way from one piece of furniture to the next. In fact, lately Naruto had no qualms about moving himself and all his toys around if he felt he was being smothered, although he never got much father than a foot or two before he was enjoying himself again. It had forced Kakashi to reexamine himself and his actions, both then and in the past with Rin and he began to recognize how suffocating he had been and why their teamwork had suffered for it.

Anger was different.

It was going to be infuriatingly hard, but he needed to look at the words with an objective eye, to asses the intent of the messages with a shinobi's perspective. The past week hadn't been just about hiding for Kakashi, but a chance to analyze his actions and bring him back into the mindset of not just _guardian_ but also _bodyguard_ for the young blond. Lashing out in anger at the nearest threat was something irate parents did, something he couldn't afford to do any longer. He had promised himself that he wouldn't make the same mistakes as he had at the Nara household and that meant keeping his emotions in check.

At first he had been nervous when he came to that conclusion. It sounded an awful lot like the kind of words his younger self would have used and betraying Obito like that was the last thing the silver-haired shinobi wanted. It took an intense amount of contemplation (sleep had been a luxury that night, but Naruto had been waking up with nightmares anyway so Kakashi hadn't been too bothered by it) and eventually decided that he wasn't regressing back to the emotional repression of his younger teen years. He didn't have to erase his emotions to follow the rules, but he couldn't let himself be ruled by them anymore.

Once the jounin had calmed down as much as he thought he would be able to he opened his eyes once again and studied the threats. There were no clues as to who had left them, or at least nothing visible to him, but Kakashi had expected that. Instead he focused on the wording and the way the graffiti had been painted on. There was definitely anger in most of the writing, evidenced by the sharp angles of the characters, or the way some characters had been stressed so much that the paint ran together and made it difficult to read. Overall, however, the threats seemed vague and poorly thought out. The people who had written this certainly intended to hurt Naruto if they ever met him, and some might even go so far as to commit murder, but the copy-nin couldn't see anything that conveyed a plan to seek Naruto out.

His assessment done, and seeing that there wasn't anything to salvage here, Kakashi moved on to his own room. It wasn't nearly so bad as Naruto's. It looked like someone had gone through his things to see if they could find any more weapons or supplies, but that was pretty much it. Things had been tossed around some, but otherwise the damage was minimal.

It was the next room that he dreaded entering.

He had known as soon as they approached the house what wall the explosive had been up against, but had opted not to think about it. Now though, he wondered what could possibly have been their objective. To blow up the house? If anyone in the crowd had half a brain they would have realized that would easily endanger their neighbors, both of whom were actually civilians and were probably already scared out of their wits, concerned for their own safety. Plus, if that were really the goal, then obviously a bigger explosive should have been used. The idiot who had done it hadn't even damaged a room that would make sense. Naruto's room? Okay that would have been obvious. His own? That would have probably been a personal attack against him or the idea that he would agree to shelter the Kyuubi. The front door? Fine, they wanted to make an entrance. But this? It was like they had randomly slapped the tag on the side of the house and said, "Hey, let's see what this does!"

Kakashi stood outside the door trying to steel himself for what he was about to see. It didn't matter how bad the damage was, the fact was that it existed and he would just have to salvage what he could and put the rest behind him. His emotions were useless here. There was nothing that could be done about it and so he would get the job done and move on.

His hand finally reached out to open the door to his father's study.

The damage was about what he expected. Part of the ceiling had caved in with no support to hold it up. The shelf on the far left had collapsed, most of the scrolls caught under it but plenty scattered on the floor crinkled and half unrolled and in some cases scorched from the heat of the explosion. The shelf on the right, which was bigger, hadn't collapsed, but almost all of the scrolls there had fallen out and had unrolled themselves across the floor. Kakashi could make out a footprint or two on some of the pages. The shelves on the far wall, across from the doorway, were partially blown apart and those scrolls that hadn't caught fire and left ashes scattered across the floor were shredded from the woodwork ripping through them.

All of that was bad enough. What made the whole thing even worse was what should have been in between the two shelves, where now there was a gigantic hole looking out into the window of the Hoshino's. His father's desk had been utterly smashed with no pieces left bigger than the size of his forearm scattered around the room.

A desk was an odd thing to hold sentimental value for a shinobi but after his tanto it was probably his father's most prized possession. It had been a wedding present from his father-in-law, Kakashi's grandfather. Kakashi's mother, and consequently most of her family on that side, had been civilians, carpenters for generations and her parents had never seemed to approve of the man she had chosen to spend the rest of her life with. The White Fang had worked tirelessly to change that, seemingly with unsuccessful attempts the entire time the two had dated and then been engaged. The teen's grandfather had never come to accept the two coming together but on the day of his parent's wedding his grandfather had presented his mother with a beautifully hand-carved necklace of a hawk, her favorite animal, which Kakashi kept safe under a floorboard he had found as a child, and his father had received the desk. It was solid black oak with intricate design work along the trim, including symbols representing the Hatake clan and his father's own nickname, as well as miniture carvings in the front of the drawers each depicting a shinobi legend. It was obviously handmade by the old man, and even though it was two more years before Kakashi's grandfather had died of a stroke his father never figured out what he had done to change his father-in-law's opinion of him.

Even during the war, right before his mother died, Kakashi had vague memories of his father smiling as he touched the woodwork or sitting down to frantically study a new technique before he was rushed off to the next mission. When he had been really young, the teen knew from the pieces of stories he remembered his mother and father telling him, his father had sometimes held him in his lap as he explained what was on the scroll. Kakashi had thought that his father had done it to help him graduate from the academy faster, to give him an edge on the theory even if he couldn't put the techniques to practice. Naruto had made him question that hypothesis, however. Kakashi could no longer count the number of times he had been brushing up on the theory of an old technique—or even just reading a book, which turned out to be a surprisingly enjoyable hobby he had picked up on those nights he couldn't go out because the kid had a bedtime—and Naruto had crawled over demanding to be picked up so he could see what his guardian was doing. The teen wondered how many times he had done the same to his father.

The desk was one of the last tangible things that connected him to the man and some asshole had blown it to smithereens without a second thought. He stood there for a moment, not moving, not thinking, not doing anything before his fists slowly clenched again and he turned around to walk out of the room without having done anything, sliding the door closed behind him.

When he walked across the hall to the living room Naruto was still happily playing with the blocks, picking out a cracker every now and again to munch on. His towers never got very tall before he happily knocked them down, but he was content and looked up as Kakashi sat down across from him, legs folded, and began playing too. The blonde watched as the blocks piled up in Kakashi's skillful hands, now five, now seven, now ten before they collapsed. Naruto laughed with delight and the smile on the boy's faced calmed the teen down a portion, although it did nothing to ease the tightness in his chest.

He couldn't stay mad with the infant around. In general when he was caring for Naruto lashing out was unacceptable and giving in to his guilt when the blond looked up at him with disappointed eyes after being dealt a small consequence would have been disastrous for everyone. The kinds of trouble the small boy would get into if he ever learned how to manipulate his jounin guardian was likely to be the stuff of urban legends if his antics as a toddler were anything to go by. So while Kakashi still wasn't perfect it was always easier when he was around the boy, conscious of the effect what he did would have on the toddler.

Naruto started building his own two or three block towers again and they stayed that way for a while, Kakashi silently swallowing his anger and knowing in the back of his mind that the emotion was merely covering up a deeper, more devastating feeling, as Naruto laughed with each collapse of a new structure. Eventually he became more interested in his guardian's play than his own and crawled around into the teen's lap, snuggling his head on the young man's chest. Kakashi paused at the affection the toddler never seemed to have trouble showing him before wrapping the boy in a one-armed hug as he continued his steady block building. Before long the tension and anger had run out and something wet slid down his face.

"Stupid Obito," he muttered as he continued what he was doing, but his towers only reached about six blocks now before they collapsed.

Naruto looked up, having heard the phrase before but not understanding it's meaning. When Kakashi wouldn't look back at him he laid his head back down and began to suck his thumb.

* * *

Geh. SO MUCH ANGST. And PARAGRAPHS. Where's all the dialogue, woman! I was never really happy with parts of this, but since this was one of the first sections I got done I have stared at it approximately a billion times and have never come up with something better. So, goal of the next chapter: less angst, more stupid fluffy Naruto antics. And probably better grammar. Don't know how I did this time around, but I have to get up early for work and I still wanted to post, so there was less proofreading. Maybe someday I'll revise it, but FFN sure doesn't make that kind of thing easy.

Also, I realize that the punishment for breaking what I have always called "The Code of Silence" seems rather harsh, but when I was thinking about it I came to the conclusion that something drastic must have been proposed, or Naruto would have heard _some_ stupid rumor floating around his class about what he supposedly was. Kids pay attention to what adults say, even when they don't seem to be, so the only way it wouldn't have come up is if the adults were so scared about the consequences that no one ever talked about it. With this is mind, I kind of wonder if the punishment shouldn't be much harsher.

**Reviews** are welcome. I stand by what I said about not being overly motivated by them, but I will admit that I get a fuzzy feeling inside, even when it's just constructive criticism. I usually try to reply to everyone who reviews, too, at least for the first couple of months.


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